Nature, the ultimate pragmatist, doggedly searches for something that works. But as the cockroach demonstrates, what works best in nature does not always appeal to us.

Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.

The egg creams of Avenue A in New York and the root beer float....are among the high points of American gastronomic inventiveness.

A gourmet knows that the best part is not always the expensive part, and he will find that part, and then he will share it. A gourmet should want to share.

If ever there was a fish made to endure, it is the Atlantic cod... But it has among its predators - man, an openmouthed species greedier than cod.

Judging foods without regard to price is a rich mans game, and yet poor people can be gourmets able to discern a good potato from a bad one.

In nineteenth-century Russia, sauerkraut was valued more than caviar.

Fate likes to tease paranoids.'

modern people have seen too many chemicals and are ready to go back to eating dirt.

The history of the Americas is one of constant warfare over salt.

THE ROMANS SALTED their greens, believing this to counteract the natural bitterness, which is the origin of the word salad, salted.

To know God, know your heart (conscience). After you know your heart, you will learn to see God in all things. Truth can only be seen by those with Truth in them.

Labour is the source of every blessing.

Let me show you how it's done... Loser!

In order to acquire anything in the physical universe, you have to relinquish your attachment to it.

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice polite indifference to that which we can't control. Your happiness can only be found within.

Swinging harder with a longer club almost always leads to bad shots.

Courage overrides self-doubt, but does not end it.

How very dull our lives would be without literature! How very much dark and poor, how so sad and empty the world would be!

Writing can be a very solitary business. It's you sat at a desk typing words into a computer. It can get lonely sometimes and lots of writers live quite isolated lives.

The heart does not derive pure pleasure from what is impermanent.