Ruth Reichl

People are so used to eating terrible pancakes, no matter how you mess up, they're going to be great. And if you make fresh orange juice, they'll be over the moon.

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

To me, cooking is man's natural activity. But I think writing is really hard. Certainly writing fiction is the hardest thing I've ever done.

You can always tell you're in deep trouble when people start thinking money's real.

A lot of people who are overweight - not everyone, but a lot of people - are dealing with issues such as emotional issues, stress issues. They become stress eaters and emotional eaters.

I studied international relations and economics at the University of Virginia. I paid my way by working as a bartender in the summer and at three part-time jobs during the year.