"This 1976 book, still in print in France as La Cuisine du Marché, was a strong inspiration to both my mother and my childhood self. The book played a big part in fueling my passion for food and cooking. I must have read it a thousand times—I fantasized over every recipe when I should have been doing my homework!"

"The character of Dorothea Brooke, a gifted woman whose gifts are thwarted by the possibilities available to her, yet who flourishes despite it because of the greatness of her character, the depiction of a woman of passion and intelligence, the tracing of disillusionment in love and marriage—Middlemarch accomplishes all this while creating a vivid world of politics, community, and landscape."

"“It’s an amazing book but as a music fan, and as a guy, it feels so tailored to me and anyone like me. It’s about a guy who’s searching for relationships and understanding himself. It’s about music and passion for music, and there’s all sorts of wonderful references throughout. It seems like a book so perfectly suited to me as a person.”"

"I quoted from the conclusion in my wedding ceremony: “Every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some mood of passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive to us – for that moment only. Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end.""