My family... always had the value of the family table and these cultural influences of growing up.

My favorite Aspen memory is saving an upside-down cake that had exploded from the high altitude.

I grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. My background was modest, and I worked at a Portuguese bakery in town.

A lot of parents ask me how to get kids to eat more vegetables. The first thing I say is that it starts from the top.

You gotta have good olive oil. You should have a cooking olive oil and you should have a finishing olive oil, like an extra-virgin olive oil.

Anything made with love, bam! -it's a beautiful meal.

Food is very representative of a city's culture. In order to really get to know a place and the people, you've got to eat the food.

If you don't follow your dream, who will?

Life just doesn't hand you things. You have to get out there and make things happen. that's the exciting part.

Spice is life. It depends upon what you like... have fun with it. Yes, food is serious, but you should have fun with it.

If kids can learn how to make a simple Bolognese sauce, they will never go hungry. It's pretty easy to cook pasta, but a good sauce is way more useful.

The eternal stars shine out as soon as it is dark enough.

Creative without strategy is called 'art.' Creative with strategy is called 'advertising.'

Golden hours of vision come to us in this present life, when we are at our best, and our faculties work together in harmony.

I can see the humor in just about any situation. After I lost my dad, I realized that none of us should take things too seriously, because everything except death works itself out.

If I look at the people that I look up to, a lot of them don't come to the forefront until their early to mid-30s. I think the most exciting roles are definitely yet to come.

Just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God's hands and leave it with Him.

We exaggerate the glory of some men in order to detract from that of others.

If you see life as an opportunity, or if you see helping others as an opportunity, then all of a sudden you become joyous. You want to go forward.

We routinely leave our small children in day care among strangers. At the same time, in our guilt we evince paranoia about strangers and foster fear in children.

Life is but sighs; and, when they cease, 'tis over.