My philosophy is that it's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all.

For me, it is good to be vulnerable. It makes me nice... weak sometimes, but in a good way, not a tragic way.

I have my own peculiar yardstick for measuring a man: Does he have the courage to cry in a moment of grief? Does he have the compassion not to hunt an animal? In his relationship with a woman, is he gentle? Real manliness is nurtured in kindness and gentleness, which I associate with intelligence, comprehension, tolerance, justice, education, and high morality. If only men realized how easy it is to open a woman's heart with kindness, and how many women close their hearts to the assaults of the Don Juans.

Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.

My mother was so beautiful, she really was a a wonderful person. Always walking like a queen. Like she owned the world. Maybe I took something from her.

The most indespensible ingredient of all good home cooking: love for those you are cooking for.

I hated my father all my life but in his final days I forgave him for all the suffering he caused us. As you grow older, marry, and have children of you own, you learn and forget. I do not forget easily, but I do forgive.