When you are the host, you have to take the party into your hands like a conductor.

Eating is something we all have to do. When we sit down at the table, we nurture ourselves, and hence, all our resistance goes away. We are open to receiving good and taking it in with gusto and pleasure.

The best things - when I really feel that I'm communicating, and when I really feel that people are getting it - are simple, straightforward recipes. I think simple is the hardest to achieve because you don't have all those elements to hide behind.

The filming happens in my home, and I cook like I do at home, on my home stove with my house pots and so on. That's who I am. I am very true to my real profile.

Food is all about the story of a people through the ages.

Physically, women have some challenges in the kitchen, like lifting heavy pots on and off the stove. You learn to adapt; you learn to find a way. But the biggest challenge for women in this industry is how to balance a family with such a demanding career.

I love telling stories. You know why I love it? Because people love listening.

I cherish my beautiful Italian heritage.

There's a great need to convene at the table with family and friends. People are feeling it and wanting it. For me to be a minor player in helping with that, it makes me so happy.

I develop trust, and I think it's the most important to my growth. If my restaurants are always full and my books sell, it's this trust.

I cooked for the two Popes that were here. Pope Francis I cooked for and Pope Benedict before him. Pope Benedict is German. And I did a little research - his mother was a chef.

I'm simple in my approach and straightforward. I connect with the average person that is interested in food.

Italy is so influenced by others: couscous in the south, cinnamon in the north because of the Venetian spice trade - I just want to divulge as much information as I can.

Cooking is about the ingredients and responding, but risotto, specifically, is about the technique.

Nature recharges me.

I had my first child at 21, my first restaurant at 24.

The food of a country is my story. It is a small story, but people relate so much to it. I want to share that, but also the idea of bringing people and family together.

I am the perfect example that if you give somebody a chance, especially here in the United States, one can find the way.

We had our wheat. We made our own olive oil. We made our wine. We had chickens, ducks; we had sheep, cows, milk. So I was raised in a very simple situation but understanding really food from the ground... the essence of food and the flavors. And those memories I took with me, and I think that they lingered on.

I think that lunch is one of the most enjoyable and important things in the day. But you need to create the space and the time to do just that. And in Italy, we do that.

If we don't focus on when we eat - like, let's say we watch television or something - you eat much more. If you focus on the food - you smell it, you cook it - you're enjoying it already.

My grandmother was the genesis of my connection and passion to food.

My grandmother taught me the seasonality of food. She lived with the rhythms of nature. That's the way we should live. Why do we need raspberries in January flown from Chile?

A box of spaghetti can take seven minutes to cook, and you can make a sauce at that time with perhaps garlic, olive oil, and zucchini. Then you've got yourself a complete meal. The whole thing shouldn't take more than half an hour.

My publicist told me not to talk about politics but, yes, I think we have a president who stole the election.

I love my mother and father. The older I get, the more I value everything that they gave me.

I have Slavic fat pads that make me look like a chipmunk and arched predatory eyebrows. With that, you're not going to get funny. That's why I play so many bad guys.

You'd think true masculinity was just calm and collected happiness. So alpha male that it needs not or worries not. But typically masculine characters are always fighting, and most violence comes from some agitated level of fear and anxiety.

I find old women at weddings and funerals attractive; I have this weird mortality thing.

I did some research into what was going on in terms of the sexual revolution that was happening in the '60s in the gay community and particularly in the drag world. Before the '60s, guys doing drag would dress like their mothers or iconic Hollywood actresses.

That's really how I got started was doing Shakespeare. When I got out of school, I was lucky enough to meet George Wolfe, who ran The Public Theater.

It's good to overexpose yourself with work. But don't expose yourself too much with the press.

There's nothing more exciting than that conversation you have with a live audience. It's the best feeling in the world.

The premise for me has always been that it's vulnerable people who do violent things. And the more vulnerable they feel, often, the more violent they are. But I think, you know, that's an idea that comes from history, from classical theater, for me.

I've never been a heavy practitioner of the method or, at least, with any specific intent; I'm kind of an impulse-based person. Like, I'm sort of waiting for something to happen that I'm not expecting, and I kind of want to jump on that train of emotion, whatever it is, both from myself or from the other actor.

I love having that creative discussion where, at the end of the day, you both feel better for having done it. Maybe it's a typically Jewish thing, where you sort of go at each other.

I find that the most interestingly written parts happen to be the bad guys.

I struggle with the idea of comparing people's work and art. The notion of giving awards or putting a competitive spin on something that is a relative art form is sort of odd to me.

I get very nervous around famous people and I get nervous around beautiful women.

You should never ask actors about politics.

I was always curious about motivation and intention, and really, that's a lot of what acting is.

Home is New York.

My style was always intuitive. I never used to believe in working on your body. Anything that smacked of vanity to me was bad for your acting, but I learned that wasn't true.

And you know, I hate to admit this, but I don't always think in terms of Shakespeare. When I eat, I do. When I'm at a restaurant, I'll think, 'Hmm, what would Macbeth have ordered?'

I'm not that interested in working with impervious people.

Hamlet is a remarkably easy role. Physically it's hard because it tends to be about three hours long and you're talking the whole time. But it's a simple role and it adapts itself very well, because the thing about Hamlet is, we all are Hamlet.

As soon as you know what you're doing, you're doing it wrong.

You can think about your career or you can think about your job. I like to think about my job.

I really don't think there is anybody in the business with better eyes than Elijah Wood.

I think, the first time I played Iago at the Public Theater, I realized I had a - much to my chagrin - I realized I had an instinct for these conflicted characters, for these torn characters, for these characters who could be described as evil. I wouldn't describe them that way.