The Parisian grocers insisted that I interact with them personally: if I wasn't willing to take the time to get to know them and their wares, then I would not go home with the freshest legumes or cuts of meat in my basket. They certainly made me work for my supper-- but, oh, what suppers!

If you don't pick your audience, you're lost because you're not really talking to anybody.

Life itself is the proper binge.

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

As a girl, I had zero interest in the stove. I've always had a healthy appetite, especially for the wonderful meat and the fresh produce of California, but I was never encouraged to cook and just didn't see the point in it.

The more I learned the more I realized how very much one has to know before one is in-the-know at all.

If you're afraid of butter, use cream.

It was fun, although we felt like pawns, or prawns, in the maelstrom.

I could at times be overly emotional, but was lucky to have the kind of orderly mind that is good at categorizing things.

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

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

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.

When I wasn't at school, I was experimenting at home, and became a bit of a Mad Scientist. I did hours of research on mayonnaise, for instance, and though no one else seemed to care about it, I thought it was utterly fascinating....By the end of my research, I believe, I had written more on the subject of mayonnaise than anyone in history.

Someone may offer you a freshly caught whole large fish, like a salmon or striped bass. Don't panic - take it!

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

What a marvelous resource soup is for the thrifty cook - it solves the ham-bone and lamb-bone problems, the everlasting Thanksgiving turkey, the extra vegetables.

I found that the recipes in most - in all - the books I had were really not adequate. They didn't tell you enough... I won't do anything unless I'm told why I'm doing it. So I felt that we needed fuller explanations so that if you followed one of those recipes, it should turn out exactly right.

It seemed that in Paris you could discuss classic literature or architecture or great music with everyone from the garbage collector to the mayor.

You learn to cook so that you don't have to be a slave to recipes. You get what's in season and you know what to do with it.

Usually, one's cooking is better than one thinks it is.

My sievelike mind didn't want to lock away dates and details; it wanted to float and meander. If I mixed all those facts and these up with a little gelatine and egg white, I wondered, would they stick together better?

Well, all I know is this—nothing you ever learn is really wasted, and will sometime be used.

How can a nation be called great if its bread tastes like kleenex?

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.

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

Of course, our servings had assumed that one was making at least a three-course meal à la française. But that wasn't the American style of eating, so we had to compromise.

Being tall is an advantage, especially in business. People will always remember you. And if you're in a crowd, you'll always have some clean air to breathe.

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.

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

I'm afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page.

I was lucky to marry Paul. He was a great inspiration, his enthusiasm about wine and food helped to shape my tastes, and his encouragement saw me through discouraging moments. I never would have had my career without Paul Child.

Fat gives things flavor.

Once you have mastered a technique, you hardly need look at a recipe again and can take off on your own.

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

I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; an i was overly emotional at the expense of careful, "scientific" thought. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

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.

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

I opened the school's booklet, found the recipes from the examination — oeufs mollets with sauce béarnaise, côtelettes de veau en surprise and crème renversée au caramel — and whipped them all up in a cold, clean fury. Then I ate them.

I was in pure, flavorful heaven at the Cordon Bleu.

Good french cooking cannot be produced by a zombie cook.

But how nice it is that one can come to know someone just through correspondence, and become really passionate friends.

It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters.

Our bodies hummed with contentment.

I had my first French meal and I never got over it. It was just marvelous. We had oysters and a lovely dry white wine. And then we had one of those lovely scalloped dishes and the lovely, creamery buttery sauce. Then we had a roast duck and I don't know what else.

Animals that we eat are raised for food in the most economical way possible, and the serious food producers do it in the most humane way possible. I think anyone who is a carnivore needs to understand that meat does not originally come in these neat little packages.

The perfect dressing is essential to the perfect salad, and I see no reason whatsoever for using a bottled dressing, which may have been sitting on the grocery shelf for weeks, even months - even years.

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.

The war broke out, and I wanted to do something to aid my country in a time of crisis. I was too tall for the WACs and WAVES, but eventually joined the OSS and set out into the world looking for adventure.

Moderation. Small helpings. Sample a little bit of everything. These are the secrets of happiness and good health.