We have a training period; we have certain guidelines and structure. You can't hire talented people and stifle them. That's not the way it works anymore.

I liked the energy of cooking, the action, the camaraderie. I often compare the kitchen to sports and compare the chef to a coach. There are a lot of similarities to it.

Brussels sprouts are misunderstood - probably because most people don't know how to cook them properly.

Turkey, unlike chicken, has very elegant characteristics. It has more of a cache than chicken. Turkey is a delicacy, so it should be presented in such a way.

My favorite thing is Spaghetti with white clam sauce anywhere on the Amalfi Coast or the Tuscan Coast.

Spices are very hot, very hip. I love spices. I've always loved the Mediterranean flavors.

They want to go to the bar and eat a few snacks, have a couple of cocktails or glasses of wine, and go home. People don't sit down at the table and have a whole three or four courses.

It's wild how chefs have become like rock stars.

Hard work only pays off when it meets the right plan of action.

I was not frightened as they were, for the very violence of his threats showed how weak he was.

I discovered Orson Welles in college; my freshman English professor screened 'Citizen Kane' for us, and I wound up writing a 20-page term paper on it.

People often say that when couples are married for a long time, they start to look alike. I don't believe that. But I do believe their sentences start to look alike.

I had run into Kari Lizer at an airport, I think, and she said, "Would you come on the show [ The New Adventures Of Old Christine]?" And I said, "God. Absolutely."

To do a drawing for a painting most often means doing something very sketchy and schematic and then later making it polished.

A friend who loved perfection would be the perfect friend, did not that love shut his door on me.

I'm somebody who gets a lot of inspiration from dreams.

Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person. By all accounts, he too is a good husband, and a good father - and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer.

We start out as little bits of disconnected dust.