Quotes from Ruth Reichl

If you really taste a doughnut, it's pretty disgusting. They taste of grease.

The first time you make something, follow the recipe, then figure out how to tailor it to your own tastes.

Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.

I don't think there's one thing more important you can do for your kids than have family dinner.

I couldn't live without butter. Butter is probably my single favourite food.

If we make it national policy that we will support small farmers the way we support agribusiness, we'll suddenly see it change in terms of the cost of organic food.

I'd rather be a fool than hard-hearted.

Children, I came to understand, need you around, even if they ignore you. In fact they need you around so they can ignore you.

Lulu writes: "When Mother, Mr. Jones and I were walking through those strange, crowded downtown streets, where people were sticking their hands into pickle barrels, pointing to smoked fish, and eating sliced herring, I saw the scene in a whole new way. They weren't buying food: They were finding their way home.

We waited, eating resilient, deeply satisfying bread dipped in spicy oil that tasted exactly like fresh olives. Doug reached out and stroked my knee and I had a sudden conscious thought that I was happy.

I feel as if there's a huge gulf separating me from all the lucky people in the world; they have so much to look forward to.

Nothing feels as good as building a team and empowering people, watching them grow and thrive.

I got back into the car thinking how lucky I was to be aware of happiness. Most people don't recognize their own good fortune until it has departed. And then it is too late." "What about Remy? What

That's the most terrible thing about being a child; you're convinced that it's all your fault. Lulu

The best antidote for sadness, I have always believed, is tackling something that you don't know how to do.

But I have always been persuaded that someday, when I grow up, I am destined for great things. And then I wonder when, exactly, I expect that will be.

Still, if I'm being honest, I have to admit that working women everywhere accepted casual misogyny. We were so accustomed to taking what men dished out that we thought it was up to us to find ways to deflect the advances of bosses and co-workers without hurting their feelings. As

I discovered that endings have their own odd thrill. In the mania of the moment, it's possible to forget what you are losing.

Hope can't hurt

the secret to life is finding joy in ordinary things.

I wonder if any of us ever really knows another person?" she replied, sounding wistful.

What I was learning, on those weekend walks, is how much you can find out about a person merely by watching what he eats. Food became my own private way of looking at the world.

We were having a class on civics, talking about what makes America a great country. I said I thought one important reason is that we've all come from different places in the world and that we learn from one another.

Till I was back in your arms again." She had a nice voice, and I hummed along