What I like best is the challenge of learning something I didn't know how to do, going beyond my comfort level.

I meet people, and we can get past small talk pretty quickly if they've read my books. It's a great shortcut.

There is that romanticized idea of what a bookstore can be, what a library can be, what a shop can be. And to me, they are that. These are places that open doors into other worlds if only you're open to them.

The critic has to do more of what the book critics and art critics have done in the past. Which is give you a context for understanding the restaurant, give you a better way to appreciate it, give you the tools to go in there and be a more informed diner who can get more pleasure out of the experience.

I met my wife, I had no money, I had nothing, and I started my family without really, my career was nowhere, but I had these other businesses, I had these things I was doing to be able to afford a small home.

I don't know about you, but my girlfriends have been my girlfriends forever, and they're my sisters and my family.

In England, I met a couple who run a children's home. They were very kind and showed me many nice spots in England.

My mother was a piano teacher, my father an inventor. He invented the reflective paint they still use on airstrips. They had faith in my ambition, and I think that made all the difference.