The first glimpse I had of what Mario Batali's friends had described to me as the 'myth of Mario' was on a cold Saturday night in January 2002, when I invited him to a birthday dinner.

You can't do traditional work at a modern pace. Traditional work has traditional rhythms. You need calm. You can be busy, but you must remain calm.

Food made by hand is an act of defiance and runs contrary to everything in our modernity. Find it; eat it; it will go. It has been around for millennia. Now it is evanescent, like a season.

In normal life, 'simplicity' is synonymous with 'easy to do,' but when a chef uses the word, it means 'takes a lifetime to learn.'

The most important knowledge is understanding what you can't do.

The family is the essential presence, the thing that never leaves you, even if you find you have to leave it.

The crowd is not us. It never is.

In normal life, "simplicity" is synonymous with "easy to do, " but when a chef uses the word, it means "takes a lifetime to learn.

I want to take a break from everything, to find out if.....i'm still ALIVE!

Thinking harder is more important than working harder.

To be oneself, simply oneself, is so amazing and utterly unique an experience that it's hard to convince oneself so singular a thing happens to everybody.

Don't put forth for tomorrow what you can do today.

The fast, flowing parts, the high-speed corners, that's where a Formula One car is at its best - changes of direction, pulling high g-forces left and right.

I always want to sleep on the third date.

When all the thoughts are concerning one thing and the person loses interest in other things, the melancholy begins.

Dr. Barney stared at me, his lips puckered. What was he so serious about? Who hasn’t thought about killing themselves, as a kid? How can you grow up in this world and not think about it?

Each day, whatever I am doing, I am always praying and thinking of God.

No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.