When I grew up in France, I was a normal size. And then I came to the United States and I gained 20 pounds.

French women love to shop and prepare food. They love to talk about what they have bought and made. It's a deeply natural love, but one that is erased in many other cultures. Most French women learn it from their mothers, some from their fathers. But if your parents aren't French, you can still learn it yourself.

I love my kitchen. For Manhattan, I have a rather decent-size kitchen, and it has an opening that gives out to the dining room, which has a window with a view of the city and in the distance the Statue of Liberty.

I cannot live without flowers everywhere. I grew up having a big garden, the size of a city block, in Rombas.

One does not laugh because one is happy; one is happy because one laughs.

French women typically think about good things to eat. American women typically worry about bad things to eat.

In America, you look at food as bad and guilty. In France, we love food and we enjoy food; food is pleasure.