Nora Ephron

I have always thought it was a terrible shame that the women's movement didn't realise how much easier it was to reach people by making them laugh than by shaking a fist and saying, 'Don't you see how oppressed you are?'

I try to write parts for women that are as complicated and interesting as women actually are.

Directing movies is the best job there is, that's all. I can hardly say a word after that. It's just a great job.

Sleepless' was a script that had been written by three or four other writers before me, and it never really worked, but it had this amazing ending on the top of the Empire State Building that just worked, no matter what came before it.

One good thing I'd like to say about divorce is that it sometimes makes it possible for you to be a much better wife to your next husband because you have a place for your anger - it's not directed at the person you're currently with.

Everyone loves fried chicken, Don't ever make it. Ever. Buy it from a place that makes good fried chicken.

The best divorce is the kind where there are no children. That was my first divorce. You walk out the door and you never look back.

I buy a lot of cookbooks. Some of them you just kind of read, and you try one recipe, and it doesn't really work. So then you don't go back to it. The new Ina Garten cookbook, which is called 'Back to Basics,' I have not had a failure with. It is the most fantastic cookbook. I think I bought 20 copies of it for friends.

I don't have writer's block, really. I do have times when I can't get the lead, and that is the only part of the story which I have serious trouble with. I don't write a word of the article until I have the lead. It just sets the whole tone - the whole point of view.

I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.

When we were working on 'Julie & Julia,' I went back to the Julia Child cookbook and made some things I haven't made in a while, one being beef bourguignon, which to me is a hilariously 1960s dish that everyone felt they had to serve at a dinner party or they weren't a grown-up.

I was always proud of being tough-minded, and I think I still am, but in my old age I've got a little softer in the head, and that's all right.