To entertain at home is both a relief and a rediscovery - of rooms and settings, of your favorite things, and particularly of your own tastes and ideas.

I was a very good cook, and I knew I could build a business.

Seek out people to work with who are brimming with talent, energy, integrity, optimism, and generosity.

I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so it's not a waste of time.

Write the book you'd want to read.

I live in the same house I’ve lived in for 25 years. I haven’t gone off and bought mansions, you know, even though my subject is living… living in a mansion wouldn’t do for my readers. I have to keep my credibility alive with my readers, so we’re in the same place. I just make that place nicer and nicer. And… and that’s a secret. And people don’t know that. People think, oh, she lives in this fabulous place, it’s the same old place. It started out like a farm, it got to be a farmette, then it got to be an estatelet. I built a wall, it helped a lot. But it’s the same place, the same grounded nature.

I haven't been to Tasmania. I haven't been to the South Pole, and I haven't been to the North Pole. I want to see the polar bear migration before there are no polar bears. I want to see Glacier National Park before the glacier melts.