My mom is a self-taught home cook, so books that offer guidelines on how to organize menus are critical to 'cook from the book' people like her.

Don't be so hard on yourself. Make something simple a few times until you 'master' it and move on to the next thing. Take a cooking class! Buy a cookbook that specializes in foods or a cuisine you enjoy.

Make dinner with the goal of stretching it out for lunch in the back of your mind. Making more of one thing is cheaper than buying more varied ingredients for each meal.

My reasons for becoming a chef are somewhat of a cliche. I always loved to eat but it was watching my parents cook that really served as the impetus for my career choice.

Right before I got 'Sons of Anarchy,' I actually quit acting for 18 months and didn't read a single script, and I wrote a film. I felt like I needed to do something that I had control over, as an artist, and also just do something where I felt like I had some control over my life, as just a human, out in the world.

I'm very conscious that people dear to me are alive in my imagination - poets in particular.

But the - look, I think that this - the United States of America is still the most powerful economy in the world. It is an incredible engine for creativity and innovation. And it has the most - smartest, most effective workforce in the world. So we have a lot going for us, in spite of the fractiousness of our politics.

Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death.