If people are made to feel uncomfortable in the kitchen, they won't go in there. That's why I think children learning to cook can be such a wonderful thing.

Pasta doesn't make you fat. How much pasta you eat makes you fat.

I spent time at my grandfather Dino's gourmet store where he brought in chefs from Naples to cook. I thought of them as rock stars.

The holidays stress people out so much. I suggest you keep it simple and try to have as much fun as you can.

Food brings people together on many different levels. It's nourishment of the soul and body; it's truly love.

I'm into very colorful food. Obviously lots of flavor, but I think we eat with our eyes first, so it has to look great. The presentation has to be great.

When I was a kid, for my birthday every year, my mother made me pasta bechamel, which is rigatoni with a white cream sauce.

My grandfather gave me inspiration to cook, and love food and flavors. My Aunt Raffie, gave me creativity and the inspiration to create new things. My mother inspires me to find simplicity in food.

I grew up in the kitchen, mostly with my grandfather, my mother and my aunt Raffy.

Opportunities present themselves and you have to enjoy the ride. All of us get so worried about the next step that we don't enjoy the moment we're in right now.

You just need a little perspective. Warmed chocolate can give you that.

When man becomes greater than nature, nature, which gave us birth, will respond.

It’s the great surprise of my life that I ended up loving [my father] so much.

I used to believe in 'em [lines]. I don't anymore. They in our heads. People like Miss Hilly is always trying to make us believe they there. But they ain't." - Aibileen

I prefer cats to people, for the most part. Most people aren't cute, & if they are cute they rapidly outgrow it

I got very keen on biography because I wanted to change it. I wanted to stretch the form. I think of it as a way of capturing souls.

From where the sun now stands I will fight no more.

Doing makeup was a way to create characters, only I got tired of doing it for other people.

Arrows are cheap; you're expensive.

When we run from God, we run away from everything that makes us alive and free. We run away from our own happiness. We leave our place where we belong—close to his heart.

Occasionally, when I run into a great bass backstage at a festival I'll play a few notes on the low E string, just to feel the instrument vibrate against my belly.