Tension translates to your guests. They'll have a much better time having chili and baked potatoes than they would if you did roast duck with a wild cherry sauce and then had to lie down and cry for a while.

You cannot truly say you live well unless you eat well.

I was shy as a child. Now I'm not really shy any more, unless I'm with shy people. I find it contagious and I don't know what to say. But I don't think shyness is something one should feel apologetic about.

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.

You need a balance in life between dealing with whats going on inside and not being so absorbed in yourself that it takes over.

It sounds like something on a very trite T-shirt, but life is what happens.

There is a kind of euphoria of grief, a degree of madness.