“There's a great need to convene at the table with family and friends. ...” — Lidia Bastianich Quote

There's a great need to convene at the table with family and friends. People are feeling it and wanting it. For me to be a minor player in helping with that, it makes me so happy.

Food is culture. Food is an identity, a footprint of who you are.

Match the right food to the right occasion. Think about what you are celebrating. If you are honoring people, what are their favorite foods? If it is a holiday, what is the food for it? When you give an identity to the party, people appreciate that.

When I say, 'Everybody to the table and eat,' I mean it. That is the glue, the center that holds the family, that gives security. Good food brings everybody to the table.

We have characters in Western television shows who are in full health with shiny hair and shiny teeth, and they go about their lives having minor problems.

If I've got one thing that I really believe about fiction and life, it's that there are no minor characters.

I thought that, post-apartheid, there would be absolutely no interest in South Africa. That has been both true and untrue. The major writers like Gordimer and Coetzee have produced major books. But some of the more minor writers have drifted away.

I would really love to go back to college, if there's any way I could to do it, and maybe minor in business.