“Bouillabaisse is only good because cooked by the French, who, if they cared to try, could produce an excellent and nutritious substitute out of cigar stumps and empty matchboxes.”

“There's only one secret to bachelor cooking — not caring how it tastes.”

“[Irene] hated trusting to luck. It was no substitute for good planning and careful preparation.”

“By then I knew that everything good and bad left an emptiness when it stopped. But if it was bad, the emptiness filled up by itself. If it was good you could only fill it by finding something better.”

“The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went.”

“Mike could see the fellow cooked and ate and sat on a sofa and put his feet up on the table it magazines. Mike didn't care which ones the fellow subscribed to, because Mike had subscribed to the fellow.”

“Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation-- experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way”

“There's no such thing, like a female with good looks who cooks and cleans.”

“Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.”

“I could point out that it isn't always easy knowing who you are and what you want, because then you have no excuse for not trying to get it.”