I never taste the wine first in restaurants, I just ask the waiter to pour.

I am not a chef. I am not even a trained or professional cook. My qualification is as an eater.

You could probably get through life without knowing how to roast a chicken, but the question is, would you want to?

I was a quiet teenager, introverted, full of angst.

You cannot truly say you live well unless you eat well.

Sometimes...we don't want to feel like a postmodern, postfeminist, overstretched woman but, rather, a domestic goddess, trailing nutmeggy fumes of baking pie in our languorous wake.

Sometimes it's good just to be seduced by the particular cheeses spread out in front of you on a cheese counter.

I am always surprised when people read double entendres into my innocuous babble.

I don't believe in low-fat cooking.

I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating.

Cooking is actually quite aggressive and controlling and sometimes, yes, there is an element of force-feeding going on.

Money isn't enough. Happiness takes more than a padded bank account.

A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear.

If they took all the drugs, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine off the market for six days, they'd have to bring out the tanks to control you.

My father was a middle manager at an oil company, but I never knew anything about his work. Whatever business acumen I have just got gleaned over the years.

I have a lot of ideas that I feel are half-formed, or half-way okay.

Patriotism is not necessarily defined as blind devotion to a president's particular agenda - and that to dispute a presidential policy is not necessarily anti-American.

Do you wanna do something fun? Wanna go to Taco Bell?

Without leisure there can be neither art nor science nor fine conversation, nor any ceremonious performance of the offices of love and friendship.

There is no doubt that I would have won more honours had I signed for Manchester United as a youngster.

Being pro-life is an essential part of being a writer.