Ted Hughes has been appointed poet laureate to succeed Sir John Betjeman, which is a bit like appointing a grim young crow to replace a cuddly old teddy bear.

M F K Fisher is the dowager queen of writers on browsing and slicing.

My mom says: 'Why aren't you a doctor?' and I'm like, 'I am a doctor!' and she's all, 'No, I mean a real doctor.' She reads my books, but she says they give her a headache.

I eat strategically. If I know I'm having a big Chinese banquet tomorrow, I'm not eating a big dinner tonight, and I'm not having breakfast.

It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes.

Of all the joys that lighten suffering earth, what joy is welcomed like a new born child?

America has the slowest growth and jobs are a disaster.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

Well understand this! If you want to join our sales team; I don't need pillion riders; I need high drivers who grasp the handle-bars.

Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life.

Huge herds of vigorous, curious, open-eyed Americans freely roaming the world are, it seems to me, quite possibly a vital national resource today as at no other time in our history.

I try not to eat processed foods, well, ever. If it comes from a lab or a factory, I don't want it.