Ruth Reichl

That's what I like so much about libraries, they smell the way we would like to imagine the past.

That's what I like so much about old libraries - they smell the way we'd like to imagine the past.

Tommy and I put on a radio play to entertain everyone while they unpacked their cookies. It was about a girl who saves up money for a prom dress, but at the last minute she says, "It's only clothes," and buys war bonds instead. The play was a big success, and my whole school pledged to buy war bonds, which should have made me happy. But it gave me a queer feeling; it's easy to write propaganda when everyone agrees with you. Do you understand? I think I'd rather bake cookies; it feels more honest. Your friend, LuluSammy looked down at me. "A girl after your own heart!" he said. "In my experience it is a rare female who can say, 'It's only clothes,' and when the war came, you discovered who you really were. Women changed. Children grew up overnight. I wonder what happened to this one.

A thousand years ago the Chinese had an entirely codified kitchen while the French were still gnawing on bones. Chopsticks have been around since the fourth century B.C. Forks didn't show up in England until 1611, and even then they weren't meant for eating but just to hold the meat still while you hacked at it with your knife.

I decided that it wasn__ pretty that I felt, but confident.

My idea of management is that what your job is as the boss is to find really good people and empower them and leave them alone.

I'm not a big turkey fan, but my husband loves it. Thanksgiving is his favorite meal.

My idea of good living is not about eating high on the hog. Rather, to me, good living means understanding how food connects us to the earth.

If you go back in American history, oysters were the food of poor people. New York was filled with oyster saloons in the 1800s.

The implications of Americans devoting their lives to fast food are more profound than the fact that our kids aren't eating well. There are real repercussions that we need to know about and think about.

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.

Writing about food is my default.

Let's face it: my life tends to revolve around food, and I love feeding people.

It takes a great deal of strength to be an optimist.

The way we live is changing. Each year, our free time shrinks a little more as computers clamor for an increasing percentage of our attention.

Throughout human history beauty has been seen as a gift from God, but Mom had another notion; she thought that beauty could be earned through self-knowledge. It may be a revolutionary idea, but it has offered me great comfort.

We slid along water reds and greens, the changing lights captured in the canvas of wet tar.

Hermione was back, holding out a gossamer dress of rainbow chiffon so airy I thought of fireflies on a moonlight night.