‚Kitchen Confidential‘ wasn’t a cautionary or an expose. I wrote it as an entertainment for New York tri-state area line cooks and restaurant lifers, basically; I had no expectation that it would move as far west as Philadelphia.

Writing’s just as natural to me as getting up and cooking breakfast.

I was born in London in England in 1934. I went through, as a child, the horrors of World War II, through a time when food was rationed and we learned to be very careful, and we never had more to eat than what we needed to eat. There was no waste. Everything was used.

To eat is to appropriate by destruction.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

I did this book ‚Harvest for Hope,‘ and I learned so much about food. And one thing I learned is that we have the guts not of a carnivore, but of an herbivore. Herbivore guts are very long because they have to get the last bit of nutrition out of leaves and things.

When you’re a chef, you graze. You never get a chance to sit down and eat. They don’t actually sit down and eat before you cook. So when I finish work, the first thing I’ll do, and especially when I’m in New York, I’ll go for a run. And I’ll run 10 or 15k on my – and I run to gain my appetite.

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you’ve got to compromise. You’ve got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.

I eat steak primarily. That’s pretty much what my diet consists of. Sometimes I supplement that with other steaks.

I can hardly eat meat because it has to look like something what it was not when it was alive.

Acorns were good until bread was found.

I didn’t have to win, and winning wasn’t important to me. Being world champion wasn’t important to me. What was important to me was entertaining the audience, and whether that meant winning, losing, singing, or whatever it was on the live show we were doing every week, which was awesome, I was game for it.

People are generally proud of their food. A willingness to eat and drink with people without fear and prejudice… they open up to you in ways that somebody visiting who is driven by a story may not get.

People get a kick out of my stupidity.

I’m Mickey Mouse. They don’t know who’s inside the suit.

I’m not looking to freak people out – eating rodents or bugs. I don’t do that anymore.

There’s a lot of great movies that have won the Academy Award, and a lot of great movies that haven’t. You just do the best you can.

My shows are not narratives.

Cooking today is a young man’s game, I don’t give a bollocks what anyone says.

I’ll be like Bob Hope, touring when I’m 100.

Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food: frequently there must be a beverage.

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.

For some of us, watching a miniseries that lasts longer than most marriages is not easy.

I do all my own stunts. I’m kidding.

I would say there are some foods that I strongly recommend that you do not eat. No. 1 on that list, I believe, is doughnuts. Comfort food. Zero value. Don’t eat them.

Never order food in excess of your body weight.

It’s very strange to go to cities like London and New York. People walk so quickly, they seem to be in a hurry all the time. And you don’t say ‚Hi‘ to everyone you meet, and you don’t smile to everyone you meet, because there’s just so many. Which is also very strange.

I have much more support than most women around this world, and I have the financial means to have a home and help with care and food.

Well, Howard Stern has been doing his impression of me for years. It doesn’t really bother me.

Stand-up comedy is mine: it’s my entity; it’s my brand; I own it. I do it when I want to do it.

I’m very type-A, and many things in my life are about control and domination, but eating should be a submissive experience, where you let down your guard and enjoy the ride.

French fries kill more people than guns and sharks, yet nobody’s afraid of French fries.

I work hard for the audience. It’s entertainment. I don’t need validation.

Human beings need stories, and we’re looking for them in all kinds of places; whether it’s television, whether it’s comic books or movies, radio plays, whatever form, people are hungry for stories.

I did stand-up, weird and ignorant stuff about my career – anything for a laugh.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

I don’t get bored.

Wrestling is intimate. You can reach out and touch the wrestlers.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

In Hollywood you can see things at night that are fast enough to be in the Olympics in the day time.

I make pop culture.

Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.

I’ve always wanted to do a family movie.

I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.

I don’t feel that I’m explaining the world or teaching people anything. And I’m not trying to be a mirror, showing them what’s really going on the world. All I’m trying to do is think of stuff that’s funny, just like when I’m kidding around with my friends.

When it comes down to it, glam rock was all very amusing. At the time, it was funny, then a few years later it became sort of serious-looking and a bit foreboding.

Besides entertainment and action, I want to educate. You know, as a producer or director, we do have a responsibility to society.

A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body.

I always thought Johnny Carson was just brilliant, and I used to watch him and all the comics that would be on the show every night – and I’d dream about it being me.

If you want to become a great chef, you have to work with great chefs. And that’s exactly what I did.

Dude, maybe not everyone loves ‚Glee.‘ Me included. I watched 10 minutes and it wasn’t my thing.

Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.

My mom had Julia Child and ‚The Fannie Farmer Cookbook‘ on top of the refrigerator, and she had a small repertoire of French dishes.

I’m certainly well taken care of in terms of food and clothes.

I’m a Buffalo wing magnet, a sandwich fanatic, a cheesesteak guy. But I’ll only get a cheesesteak in Philadelphia. No one else does it right.

There is one thing I have never taught my body how to do and that is to figure out at 6 A.M. what it wants to eat at 6 P.M.

Writers are a little below clowns and a little above trained seals.

I love the masochistic aspect of eating seething, real Sichuan food in Sichuan Province.

When you cook under pressure you trade perfection.

Diana Ross is a big inspiration to all of us. We all grew up watching everything about her – her mike placement, her grace, her style and her class.

Hong Kong is a wonderful, mixed-up town where you’ve got great food and adventure. First and foremost, it’s a great place to experience China in a relatively accessible way.