We need time to defuse, to contemplate. Just as in sleep our brains relax and give us dreams, so at some time in the day we need to disconnect, reconnect, and look around us.

For the socially timid, the kitchen is the place to be. At least, it is a place to start.

A world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins.

When I was alone, I lived on eggplant, the stove top cook's strongest ally. I fried it and stewed it, and ate it crisp and sludgy, hot and cold. It was cheap and filling and was delicious in all manner of strange combinations. If any was left over, I ate it cold the next day on bread.

I do not believe that you have to spend a lot of money to eat well: it is hard to beat a plain old baked potato.

It is a fact of life that people give dinner parties, and when they invite you, you have to turn around and invite them back. Often they retaliate by inviting you again, and you must then extend another invitation. Back and forth you go, like Ping-Pong balls, and what you end up with is called social life.

The old days were slower. People buttered their bread without guilt and sat down to dinner en famille.