I woke up on May 15, 1991, the day of my Barnard graduation, and I said to myself, 'By the end of today you will decide what you want to do with the rest of your life.'

Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken.

The best way to learn to cook is to do some serious eating.

Food is ever-changing and ever moving forward and getting more and more complex.

Creative risks will always outweigh technical mistakes.

Give yourself enough time to really learn how to cook.

The hardest thing for me is restraint.

The better the ingredients, the more farmers I can buy from, the closer I feel to the food I want to make that represents what I care about as a chef.

For me no good food is illuminated without acidity.

I don't show just anyone how to crust a sea bass. That's sacred information.

I bent my head over a stove in my early 20s and picked it up in my 30s.

I asked this heroic pet lover how it felt to have died for a schnauzer named Teddy. Salvador Biagiani was philosophical. He said it sure beat dying for absolutely nothing in the Viet Nam War.

Poetry is an orphan of silence.

You are the light in the heart of the universe, to illuminate the world spread the light of your love.

Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

O man! Prepare yourself for the Hereafter, obey Allah to the extent of your need for Him and anger Him to the extent of your patience in Hell.

Having grown up in a racist culture where 2 and 2 are not 5, I have found life to be incredibly theatrical and theater to be profoundly lifeless.

The American Civil Liberties Union, has helped neutralize the Judeo-Christian underpinnings of our legal system by seeking new legal precedents.

The American way of life is not negotiable.

I'm not the kind to go out and tell people 'Oh yeah I'm a gold medalist.'

Words are powerful vibrations, use words to uplift your spirits and heal yourself.