Martha Stewart Quotes

Study your strengths; then decide how hard you want to work

Being a perfectionist is not an evil thing.

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

I think it's very important that whatever you're trying to make or sell or teach has to be basically good. A bad product and you know what? You won't be here in ten years.

For me it's a dedication to your real interests. It's an ability to be open-minded. Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success. The great artists have been open-minded, even though they may seem, like Picasso, to be very directed, you can be directed and open-minded at the same time. I think you have to be really intensely serious about your work, but not so serious that you can't see the lightness that may also involve your life. You have to have that lightness too. You have to not be so heavy-handed and so ostentatious. It's very important not to be.

When I was growing up my mom was home. She wanted to go to work, but she waited. She was educated as a teacher. The minute my youngest sister went to school full-time, from first grade, mom went back to work. But she balanced her life. She chose teaching, which enabled her to leave at the same time we left, and come home pretty much the same time we came home. She knew how to balance.

I want to focus on my salad.

You can be the most beautiful person on earth, and if you don't have a fitness or diet routine, you won't be beautiful.

Life is too complicated not to be orderly.

Really try to find a job where it's fun to get up and get out the door, no matter what time.

You have to watch the clock constantly because youre only allowed out of your home for a limited period, and for a busy person, watching the clock and knowing other people are watching the clock is extremely difficult.

Larousse has a place of honor on every cookbook shelf in America.

Revenge of the Middle-Aged Woman.

I - I try to do as much as I can, wherever I am. So, at the farm, I'm always thinking of some new project, some new thing I can do.

I live in an old house with no closets and no built-ins. I hate big cupboards.

Bloggers create kind of a popularity. But they are not the experts, and we have to understand that.

You have to focus on what's important to you and go for it. But don't stab people in the back. It poisons your whole life if you're like that.

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.

Who are these bloggers? They're not trained editors at Vogue magazine. There are bloggers writing recipes that aren't tested that aren't necessarily very good, or are copies of what really good editors have created and done. Bloggers create a kind of a popularity but they are not the experts. We have to understand that.

I have a lot of energy. I have a great desire to absorb information. I’m not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at — just walking around Williamsburg, for example — is a great opportunity for ideas. I’ve been here before, I’ve seen things before, but now my eye gets keener and keener. So I can pick up little things: just the pattern of a brick walk, or the way they’ve attached a light to a house.

Everywhere I go, I always look for creative entrepreneurs, whether it's artisans and craftsmen, small farmers and gardeners, or restaurateurs who use fresh, locally sourced ingredients. I admire the courage and self-reliance it takes to start your own business and make it succeed.

I'm not a sponge exactly, but I find that something I look at is a great opportunity for ideas.

I adore summer entertaining. For a dinner party at the farm, I might prepare homemade fettuccine with porcini mushrooms, soft-shell crabs, spinach from the garden, and lemon tarts with fraises des bois for dessert.

I'm a maniacal perfectionist.

My dream... was to be an eclectic knowledge-gathering person.

You have to be open to change. I never stop making sure that what I say is the best of what could be said about a particular thing. It's a constant evolution. If I planted a tree one way yesterday and somebody tells me of a better way to plant a tree, I think, You know, they're right, that's better. Then I change my way to accommodate the new way of planting trees.

I love dessert. I can't be guilty about it because I have to taste everything. I experiment.

The more you adapt, the more interesting you are.

I don't think there's any company that has the same tools as Martha Stewart Living does, and people know that. They really love the tools and, if you have the tools, you can pretty much do the craft.

Doing projects really gives people self-confidence. Nothing is better than taking the pie out of the oven. What it does for you personally, and for your family's idea of you, is something you can't buy.

Gardening is a humbling experience.

I was married for 30 years. Isn't that enough? I've had my share of dirty underwear on the floor.

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

The subject matter that I am really spending my time on has become an acceptable subject matter. Living, lifestyle, family, is now in the forefront of interest in America, and I've just stuck with it. I mean, I've been doing this for years, and I never got angry. I never said, you know, listen, I'm fighting for this subject. That wasn't my point. My point was to continue working in a subject matter, knowing full well that finally it would be recognized as a viable subject once again.

Your home should be a reflection of how you want to live right now, and for the next phase of your life.

I try to seek out and surround myself with people who just percolate fresh, original, and creative ideas.

Many of my executives have worked with me since the beginning. I can be fair and decisive and encouraging as well as demanding.

It's all about new techniques -- simplifying old techniques, and consolidating steps. Making things go faster, but not worse.

I have a microphone on one ankle and an ankle bracelet on the other, so I'm well balanced today.

There is no single recipe for success. But there is one essential ingredient: Passion

Our passion is and should always be to make life better.

The homes I like the best are totally occupied, busy, and useful, whether it's a tiny little house or a great big one. Rarely do you find a great big house that's used in a good way. So I prefer smaller spaces that are full of books, full of things that people are doing.

Of course I know how to roll a joint.

Plants respond far better to moderate but consistent care than they do to occasional bouts of heroic intervention.

All I really want is a three-room house. The home I have designed at my new farm in Bedford, New York, is a three-room house: bedroom on top, living room in the middle, and kitchen on the ground.

That's reality, it's accessibility. People are used to seeing me like that for the last year, I think, ... To avoid it is avoidance. We're not going to avoid things.

Without an open-minded mind, you can never be a great success.

I used to wear real fur, but, like many others, I had a change of heart when I learned what actually happens to the animals.