Quotes from Julia Child

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

You are the butter to my bread,and the breath to my life

nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.

Remember, 'No one's more important than people'! In other words, friendship is the most important thing--not career or housework, or one's fatigue--and it needs to be tended and nurtured.

It's so beautifully arranged on the plate - you know someone's fingers have been all over it.

Fat gives things flavor.

Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything.

We had a happy marriage because we were together all the time. We were friends as well as husband and wife. We just had a good time.

You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,' [Chef Bugnard] said. 'Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always.

Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes.

One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.

Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!

Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

In France, cooking is a serious art form and a national sport.

Once you have mastered a technique, you barely have to look at a recipe again

Just like becoming an expert in wine–you learn by drinking it, the best you can afford–you learn about great food by finding the best there is, whether simply or luxurious. The you savor it, analyze it, and discuss it with your companions, and you compare it with other experiences.

But I was a pure romantic, and only operating with half my burners turned on.

In Paris and later in Marseille, I was surrounded by some of the best food in the world, and I had an enthusiastic audience in my husband, so it seemed only logical that I should learn how to cook 'la cuisine bourgeoise' - good, traditional French home cooking.

Food like love is a deeply emotional matter.

I love good, fresh food cooked by someone who knows what he's doing.

I fell in love with the public, the public fell in love with me, and I tried to keep it that way.

I love to teach - that's my role.

In the 1960s, you could eat anything you wanted, and of course, people were smoking cigarettes and all kinds of things, and there was no talk about fat and anything like that, and butter and cream were rife. Those were lovely days for gastronomy, I must say.

I was going to be a great woman novelist. Then the war came along and I think it's hard for young people today, don't you, to realize that when World War II happened we were dying to go and help our country.