I love people, and I'm excited that I can turn them on.

I believe in America. I'm one of those silly flag wavers.

When you've got a great business going, you go open another and take the risk of losing the whole thing. It's fun!

In '71 or '72 I returned to New Orleans and stayed there. I started cooking Louisiana food. Of all the things I had cooked, it was the best-and it was my heritage.

Have fun. Do something nobody else had done before, or has done since.

We closed the restaurant in New Orleans and brought the entire staff to San Francisco. But we had to go home.

One of the problems of our youth is that the family unit is broken up. When we'd sit down to dinner together as a family, we'd learn about each other. We had something people don't get today.