On the whole, I prefer Christmas as an adult than I did as a child.

I think we all live in a world that is so fast-paced, it's threatening and absolutely saturated with change and novelty and insecurity. Therefore, the ritual of cooking and feeding my family and friends, whoever drops in, is what makes me feel that I'm in a universe that is contained.

I can understand why those primitive desert people think a camera steals their soul. It is unnatural to see yourself from the outside.

Emotion is messy, contradictory... and true.

But if you know that something has been really vicious, you don't read it, you don't let it into your head. What's damaging is when sentences go through your head and you burn with the injustice of it.

I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater.

On the whole, I prefer Christmas as an adult than I did as a child.