The only thing I want is something I can't have; and that is to know if, 100 years from now, people will still buy my books.

Hemingway never grew out of adolescence. His scope and depth stayed shallow because he had no idea what women are for.

A person who does not read cannot think. He may have good mental processes, but he has nothing to think about. You can feel for people or natural phenomena and react to them, but they are not ideas. You cannot think about them.

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.

Wolfe scowled at her. I could see he was torn with conflicting emotions. A female in his kitchen was an outrage. A woman criticizing his or Fritz's cooking was an insult. But corned beef hash was one of life's toughest problems, never yet solved by anyone.

A guest is a jewel on the cushion of hospitality

The trouble with an alarm clock is that what seems sensible when you set it seems absurd when it goes off