Cooking is an act of love, a gift, a way of sharing with others the little secrets -- 'piccoli segreti' -- that are simmering on the burners.

You really have to be satisfied with what you are and accept from life what it still very generously offers you - and notice it, and be glad for it.

Hate is unfulfilled love.

Isn't it wonderful to be alive? You know, you can forget all about it. Then suddenly you remember, and think of all the things you can do. Here I am. I can walk around. I can talk. I can see things and remember things. I am alive. How wonderful!

Luck assists fortune, you need to catch the moment. Otherwise the opportunity fades.

Success, I would find out, is interior. It has to do with self-fulfillment and the joy of living.

Without my mother's ambition, her drive, I doubt that on my own I would have pushed myself out of Pozzuoli and into the frightening world that was faraway Rome.