“This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook- try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“...nothing is too much trouble if it turns out the way it should.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Remember, 'No one's more important than people'! In other words, friendship is the most important thing--not career or housework, or one's fatigue--and it needs to be tended and nurtured.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,' [Chef Bugnard] said. 'Even after you eat it, it stays with you - always.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed. Eh bien, tant pis. Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile, and learn from her mistakes.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“One of the secrets, and pleasures, of cooking is to learn to correct something if it goes awry; and one of the lessons is to grin and bear it if it cannot be fixed.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Upon reflection, I decided I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which cause me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, 'scientific' though. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Just speak very loudly and quickly, and state your position with utter conviction, as the French do, and you'll have a marvelous time!”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“But I was a pure romantic, and only operating with half my burners turned on.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“The sweetness and generosity and politeness and gentleness and humanity of the French had shown me how lovely life can be if one takes time to be friendly.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make. When one's hostess starts in with self-deprecations such as "Oh, I don't know how to cook...," or "Poor little me...," or "This may taste awful...," it is so dreadful to have to reassure her that everything is delicious and fine, whether it is or not. Besides, such admissions only draw attention to one's shortcomings (or self-perceived shortcomings), and make the other person think, "Yes, you're right, this really is an awful meal!" Maybe the cat has fallen into the stew, or the lettuce has frozen, or the cake has collapsed -- eh bien, tant pis! Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile, as my ersatz eggs Florentine surely were, then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile -- and learn from her mistakes.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“In the blood-heat of pursuing the enemy, many people are forgetting what we are fighting for. We are fighting for our hard-won liberty and freedom; for our Constitution and the due processes of our laws; and for the right to differ in ideas, religion and politics. I am convinced that in your zeal to fight against our enemies, you, too, have forgotten what you are fighting for.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“She was my first cat ever, and I thought she was marvelous. ”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“...the waiters carried themselves with a quiet joy, as if their entire mission in life was to make their customers feel comfortable and well tended.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“We ate the lunch with painful politeness and avoided discussing its taste. I made sure not to apologize for it. This was a rule of mine.
I don't believe in twisting yourself into knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make...
Usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is vile,...then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile- and learn from her mistakes.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“I admired the English immensely for all that they had endured, and they were certainly honorable, and stopped their cars for pedestrians, and called you “sir” and “madam,” and so on. But after a week there, I began to feel wild. It was those ruddy English faces, so held in by duty, the sense of “what is done” and “what is not done,” and always swigging tea and chirping, that made me want to scream like a hyena”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“There are only four great arts: music, painting, sculpture, and ornamental pastry- architecture being perhaps the least banal derivative of the latter.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because when you order a beer they don't bring you oysters. (Paul Child)”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“...operational proof...it's all theory until you see for yourself whether or not something works.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“We are so bemused by our own petard, that we are unable to look at things objectively.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“When I wasn't at school, I was experimenting at home, and became a bit of a Mad Scientist. I did hours of research on mayonnaise, for instance, and though no one else seemed to care about it, I thought it was utterly fascinating....By the end of my research, I believe, I had written more on the subject of mayonnaise than anyone in history.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“I'm afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Illegitemus non carborundum est (“Don’t let the bastards grind you down”).”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Good french cooking cannot be produced by a zombie cook.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Was it a sign of Creeping Decrepitude?”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“Standing up through the Citroen's open sunroof, my six-foot-three-inch, red-cheeked sister pointed a long, trembling finger at the perpetrator and with maximum indignation yelled: 'Ce merde-monsieur a justement crache dans ma derriere!' Her intended meaning is obvious, but what she said was, 'This shit-man just spat out into my butt!”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“...The more I learned the more I realized how very much one has to know before one is in-the-know at all.”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
“If variety is the spice of life, then my life must be one of the spiciest you ever heard of. A curry of a life. -Paul Child”
― Julia Child, quote from My Life in France
Julia Child
Born place: in Pasadena, California, The United States
Born date August 15, 1912
See more on GoodReads
“life has a way of poking holes in your plans, or in the plans others make for you”
― Sheena Iyengar, quote from The Art of Choosing
“Old Spice
Every Sunday afternoon he dresses in his old army uniform,
tells you the name of every man he killed.
His knuckles are unmarked graves.
Visit him on a Tuesday and he will describe
the body of every woman he could not save.
He’ll say she looked like your mother
and you will feel a storm in your stomach.
Your grandfather is from another generation–
Russian degrees and a school yard Cuban national anthem,
communism and religion. Only music makes him cry now.
He married his first love, her with the long curls down
to the small of her back. Sometimes he would
pull her to him, those curls wrapped around his hand
like rope.
He lives alone now. Frail, a living memory
reclining in a seat, the room orbiting around him.
You visit him but never have anything to say.
When he was your age he was a man.
You retreat into yourself whenever he says your name.
Your mother’s father,
“the almost martyr,
can load a gun under water
in under four seconds.
Even his wedding night was a battlefield.
A Swiss knife, his young bride,
his sobs as he held Italian linen between her legs.
His face is a photograph left out in the sun,
the henna of his beard, the silver of his eyebrows
the wilted handkerchief, the kufi and the cane.
Your grandfather is dying.
He begs you Take me home yaqay,
I just want to see it one last time;
you don’t know how to tell him that it won’t be
anything like the way he left it.”
― Warsan Shire, quote from Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth
“If we want to give our children what they need to thrive, we must honor their basic nature- boyish or girlish, introverted or extroverted, wild or mellow.”
― Wendy Mogel, quote from The Blessing Of A Skinned Knee: Using Timeless Teachings to Raise Self-Reliant Children
“Isn't [Caffe Nero] a bit 'commercial' for an anti-establishment rock star like yourself?"
He dropped my hand and dug into his pocket. "But I've got a loyalty card," he protested. "And I've got enough stamps to get you a free coffee.”
― Holly Bourne, quote from Soulmates
“Whatever you're thinking, it's a bad idea.”
― Pittacus Lore, quote from The Fate of Ten
After You'd Gone
Brooklyn
The Descendants
The Ghost Writer
Insight
Tiger LilyBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
