Ruth Reichl quotes

I meet people, and we can get past small talk pretty quickly if they've read my books. It's a great shortcut. (Ruth Reichl)
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.
Ruth Reichl
The first time you make something, follow the recipe, then figure out how to tailor it to your own tastes.
Ruth Reichl
If we make it national policy that we will support small farmers the way we support agribusiness, we'll suddenly see it change in terms of the cost of organic food.
Ruth Reichl
One of mom's greatest acts of generosity was that she trained me to be defiant. Her great gift to me was encouraging me to be the person that I wanted to be, not the one that she and my father wished I was.
Ruth Reichl
You can be a decent critic if you know about food, but to be a really good one, you need to know about life.
Ruth Reichl
Really, the only way to face the biggest problems we have is for the government to change the way they subsidize food. The way we subsidize food makes it cheaper to go to McDonald's and get a hamburger than a salad, and that's insane.
Ruth Reichl
Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.
Ruth Reichl
My kitchen was built for my body. It forms a 'U' in the middle of the living room and dining room. It's not huge, because I don't like huge kitchens.
Ruth Reichl
I wanted to figure out a way of living where I didn't have to be in an office every day.
Ruth Reichl
What was so extraordinary to me about going through this box of my mother's letters and diaries was meeting my mother not as my mother, but as a real person. And what breaks my heart is that I had no idea how self-aware she was and how protective of me she was. (Ruth Reichl)
People are so used to eating terrible pancakes, no matter how you mess up, they're going to be great. And if you make fresh orange juice, they'll be over the moon.
Ruth Reichl
I think that reading is always active. As a writer, you can only go so far; the reader meets you halfway, bringing his or her own experience to bear on everything you've written. What I mean is that it is not only the writer's memory that filters experience, but the reader's as well.
Ruth Reichl
My mother started out by being a very good girl. She did everything that was expected of her, and it cost her dearly. Late in her life, she was furious that she had not followed her own heart; she thought that it had ruined her life, and I think she was right.
Ruth Reichl
One of the effects of cheap food is, we have food that is so unsatisfactory. We need to go back to flavor.
Ruth Reichl
I love breakfast, and I don't see any reason it has to be cereal and eggs and toast.
Ruth Reichl
For me, cooking is a way to try and please people and tell them I love them. When I fall in love with someone, I want to feed them as well.
Ruth Reichl
The implications of Americans devoting their lives to fast food are more profound than the fact that our kids aren't eating well. There are real repercussions that we need to know about and think about.
Ruth Reichl
The truth is, as much as I loved writing restaurant reviews, it always felt very self-indulgent to me. It was so much fun, I loved doing it, but there's so much else to say about food.
Ruth Reichl
I like to work. I believe that work helps us find our self worth.
Ruth Reichl
What I like best is the challenge of learning something I didn't know how to do, going beyond my comfort level. (Ruth Reichl)
I don't care what a lot of anonymous strangers think about restaurants.
Ruth Reichl
I came from a family where, you know, we sat down at the table every night, and you better have a story to tell. My father never wrote his stories down. And you know, I learned that they went farther if you wrote them down.
Ruth Reichl
Given a choice between great food and boring company or boring food and great company, I'll take the great company any day.
Ruth Reichl
If you're going to tell stuff, you might as well tell the real stuff.
Ruth Reichl