Frances Mayes citations

“Life offers you a thousand chances… all you have to do is take one.”

“Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”

“There is no technique, there is just the way to do it.
Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?”

“I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.”

“A Chinese poet many centuries ago noticed that to re-create something in words is like being alive twice.”

“Splendid to arrive alone in a foreign country and feel the assault of difference. Here they are all along, busy with living; they don't talk or look like me. The rhythm of their day is entirely different; I am foreign.”

“Five tender apricots in a blue bowl, a brief and exact promise of things to come.”

“The world cracks open for those willing to take a risk.”