Ruth Reichl

Reading an audio book is a very odd experience because there are three people sitting out there while you're reading in this glass booth, and you can see their reactions.

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

My mother started out by being a very good girl. She did everything that was expected of her, and it cost her dearly. Late in her life, she was furious that she had not followed her own heart; she thought that it had ruined her life, and I think she was right.

You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one, you need to know about life.

My kitchen was built for my body. It forms a 'U' in the middle of the living room and dining room. It's not huge, because I don't like huge kitchens.

I wanted to figure out a way of living where I didn't have to be in an office every day.

Comfort Me with Apples' is a love story, or better, two love stories. And since it deals with a later period in my life, most of the people who appear in it are living.

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.

M. F. K. Fisher was a wonder and a huge influence, and someone I got to know pretty well at the end of her life.

In really good times, you say, 'No, I'm not taking that ad.' But in bad times, you'll take anything.

Given a choice between great food and boring company or boring food and great company, I'll take the great company any day.

There is an almost anti-epicurean tradition at the very base of America. For much of the middle part of American history, people who wanted to overcome that went to France.