The extent to which we take everyday objects for granted is the precise extent to which they govern and inform our lives.

food is never just something to eat.

It is the nature of human beings not to be able to leave nature alone.

The extent to which we take everyday objects for granted is the precise extent to which they govern and inform our lives.

Animals are murdered to produce meat; vegetables are torn up, peeled, and chopped; most of what we eat is treated with fire; and chewing is designed remorselessly to finish what killing and cooking began. People naturally prefer that none of this should happen to them. Behind every rule of table etiquette lurks the determination of each person present to be a diner, not a dish.

Our perception that we have 'no time' is one of the distinctive marks of modern Western culture.

Bread is for us a kind of successor to the motherly breast, and it has been over the centuries responsible for billions of sighs of satisfaction.