Charlie Trotter

My father was a successful entrepreneur. ”

It's a lot harder to get people to 'ooh' and 'aah' over beets and carrots than it is to get them to 'ooh' and 'aah' over artichokes or asparagus, and I enjoy being able to take these humble, 'lowbrow' foodstuffs up a few notches and serve them with great exuberance. ”

As tough as I've been on anybody, as hard as I've ever been on anybody, I have been harder on myself. By far. ”

I never considered Miles Davis a perfectionist; I always considered him as an excellence-ist, where deviation is actually kind of cool. ”

What I was reading was already part of my psyche, but finally someone else was saying it's okay to walk alone. ”

I love faltering. I love, in a sense, coming up short. Because you learn nothing from success. You learn so much from failing. ”

You've got to give away what you love. ”

Any fool can be happy. What I'm interested in is satisfaction. There's got to be more to life than just being happy. You've got to be fulfilled. You've got to be satisfied; philosophically satisfied is what I mean. ”

Life's too short. You may be on this planet for 80 years at best or who knows, but you can't just pedal around and do the same thing forever. ”

If people give me a year or two of their best effort, then I am their friend for life. ”