...the waiters carried themselves with a quiet joy, as if their entire mission in life was to make their customers feel comfortable and well tended.

Noodles are not only amusing but delicious.

The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook.

A party without cake is really just a meeting.

You don't have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces - just good food from fresh ingredients.

People who love to eat are always the best people.

The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.

I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.

In department stores, so much kitchen equipment is bought indiscriminately by people who just come in for men's underwear.

Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.

I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

93/7 Rule: 93% of communication occurs through nonverbal behavior & tone

I tell everyone who asks me about writing...almost everyone has an idea for a book, and some even have a great ending, but it's that 290 or so pages in between that are tough!

One either has to believe in a God who's terribly prejudiced, or disbelieve the teachings of such exclusionary theologies. Religions have taught us that 'we are better than they.'

I do have a self-censor; everybody does, or at least most who are not pathological do.

Have you ever closed your eyes and listened to the sound of your own mother's voice?

Salmon. Salmon, salmon, salmon, salmon. I eat so much salmon at these weddings, twice a year I get this urge to swim upstream.

It's harder to be a poor person than anything else.

Mathematicians create by acts of insights and intuition. Logic then sanctions the conquests of intuition.

It's cool to challenge myself to learn new things as opposed to going to play basketball in the park for millionth time.

I'm not trying to be cool. I have a problem with lights. I have one eye that's become super-sensitive to lighting, so I do wear sunglasses quite a bit.