A person cooking is a person giving. Even the simplest food is a gift.

When life is hard and the day has been long, the ideal dinner is not four perfect courses, each in a lovely pool of sauce whose ambrosial flavors are like nothing ever before tasted, but rather something comforting and savory, easy on the digestion - something that makes one feel, if even for only a minute, that one is safe.

Fulfillment leaves an empty space where longing used to be.

When I was alone, I lived on eggplant, the stove top cook's strongest ally.

There is nothing like soup. It is by nature eccentric: no two are ever alike, unless of course you get your soup in a can.

[On television:] It's made people moronic, it's robbed people of their ability to think. It's done tremendous damage, and every single household that has a small child should take it and throw it out the window.

It is always wise to make too much potato salad. Even if you are cooking for two, make enough for five. Potato salad improves with age - that is, if you are lucky enough to have any left over.