What do I believe in? Belief means faith, and there's only one damned thing in the world I have any faith in. That's the idea of American democracy, because it seems to me so obvious that that's the only sensible way to run human affairs.

Labels are for the things men make, not for men. The most primitive man is too complex to be labeled.

I still can't decide which is more fun - reading or writing.

The brain can be hoodwinked but not the stomach.

The only two kinds of books could earn an American writer a living are cookbooks and detective novels.

I don't approve of open fires. You can't think, or talk or even make love in front of a fireplace. All you can do is stare at it.

Chili is one of the great peasant foods. It is one of the few contributions America has made to world cuisine. Eaten with corn bread, sweet onion, sour cream, it contains all five of the elements deemed essential by the sages of the Orient: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter.