“I do not eat meat, I do not smoke, and I do not drink, and therefore, I do not feel the cold.”

“I think cooking completes you as a woman. … I woke up one morning and said, I can't do this [eating meat] to myself anymore. I didn't feel good. I was constipated all the time. … I used to live to eat. Now I eat to live.”

“… all [meat-eating] in any form, in any manner, and in any place, is unconditionally and once for all, prohibited for all. Thus, Mahāmati, meat-eating I have not permitted to anyone, I do not permit, I will not permit. Meat-eating, I tell you, Mahāmati, is not proper for homeless monks.”

“Every morsel of meat we eat is slapping the tear-stained face of a starving child. When I look into her eyes, do I remain silent?”

“Do you mind if I don't smoke?”

“People ask me, "Why do you drink diet soda?" So I can eat regular cake!”

“Sometimes I do believe in predestination. I feel helpless to do anything but what I am compelled to do.”

“Do you drink?"
"Of course, I just said I was a writer.”

“I don't eat or wear animals and I have a pretty simple reason; because they are animals. They have lives, they feel pain, and I don't think they should give those lives nor feel pain for humans. As humans, we have the ability to understand that not only do we not need to eat meat; in fact we can live healthier lives without it.”

“Do you like to eat things?
-I love eating. I list it as a hobby.”