Going through 'The Partridge Family,' I looked up to people like Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck and all those guys. But as an actor playing a part, I had to sing what was right for the character and the show.

It's amazing what happens to your body as you get a little older.

Having all that - the fame and adulation and women and all that stuff they talk about - doesn't make you happy. You have to make yourself happy.

My first five albums were triple-platinum, and I played a lot of concerts.

Acting was absolutely my first focus. I graduated high school in L.A., and two weeks afterwards, I moved to New York City, and I got a job in a mail room, and I got an agent, doing what actors do, with head shots and all the rest of it.

Most definitely, my dad was my biggest influence.

I was very wary of repeating my father's behaviour and did everything not to act like he did.

Doing musicals and theatrical productions, I never did any of my hits.

Contrary to public opinion and the image people have of me, I grew up in a very lower-middle-class, blue-collar environment 40 minutes outside of New York until I was 11.

I just want to continue to produce good work. I don't want to do junk.

Anybody who carries the albatross of that teen-idol thing - well, people tend to look and say: 'There he is again. It's Fabian.' It's a very tough thing. Everybody wants to discount your talent because you have become so... I don't know... a god, if you will.

If people respond to the songs, whether they love you or hate you, then you've really done your job. You've evoked something.

It's always nice to have people love you, but I'd just like to be judged fairly.

There's nothing wrong with becoming a role model, nothing wrong with inspiring people to become musicians, to become actors.

I gave up my whole life to my career.

When you cut your life into a film - 90-some minutes of film - you end up taking snapshots and vignettes of the highlights of it - marriage, divorce, death, success, fame, loss. The up and the down and the up again.

Most people view success by the results, and I don't.

You can't be 24 again; you can't be new when you're 40 years old.

What happened to me during the last couple of years of 'The Partridge Family' was I became so famous and so isolated and so unhappy that I had to do anything I could to end it.

I've had an awful lot of good fortune.

I don't need to remind myself of the trophies. I know what I accomplished.

Life's too short to just breeze on by.

As a child, I didn't see my dad that much because he was always working at the restaurant. He became pretty jaded after working at the restaurant for so long.

Fear is a driving force for most of the things that I do. I don't know if that's healthy.

Chef Thomas Keller was an inspiration to me and many, many young cooks like me. He told us that the role of the new, modern chef is different.

I find that there are a lot of similarities between French and Japanese food. I think they're two countries that have really systemized their cuisine and codified it.

Food, to me, is always about cooking and eating with those you love and care for.

Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You'll find 'natural flavor' or 'artificial flavor' in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories are far more significant than the differences.

To eat well, I always disagree with critics who say that all restaurants should be fine dining. You can get a Michelin star if you serve the best hamburger in the world.

America is a country of abundance, but our food culture is sad - based on huge portions and fast food. Let's stop with the excuses and start creating something better.

Cooking and gardening involve so many disciplines: math, chemistry, reading, history.

I think that the Japanese - and I do love Japanese cuisine and adore Japanese food culture - I think that they're going to plow through the entire world's fishing. They're going to eat everything anyways.

People don't think that bread is part of Asian culture or Asian food culture, but it's quite prevalent in Northern China, and you see it throughout Japan and as you go to Taiwan.

I love to eat sushi, and, you know, those flavors and wasabi and really eating spoonfuls of it... I would just mix it and put it on everything, literally.

I'm not trying to bring New York to Toronto. I want to understand Toronto better.

I wanted to disprove the notion that you couldn't open a great restaurant in a casino.

I doubt I'd ever do television to the extent that, say, Gordon Ramsay has.

If people ask me, 'What do you think could improve in Toronto dining,' I'd say there's nothing to improve on.

I was quite cocky, but having been hailed as this great young golfer, I couldn't even make the high school golf team once I got there. I had a big dose of humble pie then, and ever since, I've always known that there is always someone out there better than you, more talented. Always.

I think the basic thing that home cooks can learn how to do is just season properly... If the home cook realized how little salt they use compared to what's needed, it would make their food taste better.

I look forward to the spring vegetables because the season is so short. Mushrooms, edible foraged herbs, wild leeks, early season asparagus.

New York gives us a wide colour palette to cook from. We have cuisines from around the world, and that lets us pick and choose.

I love chicken. I love chicken products: fried chicken, roasted chicken, chicken nuggets - whatever. And going to Japan, I would see that these chicken were smoked and then grilled and then have this amazing crispy skin.

I want to make simple food new.

One of the benefits to ordering food in New York is that you can get food 24/7.

Everyone tries to compare cooks to rock stars. I see more comparisons to the fashion world.

When I was in Japan, everyone wanted to work for Pierre Gagnaire, and they wouldn't miss a beat.

If you ask what people say what American cuisine is, they cannot really do it. I don't know what it is.

I appreciate people who are happy.

I think being Shaquille O'Neal would be the most amazing thing. There's nothing I would have done differently in his life. Everything he's done I think is pretty spot on, even, like, the bad rap videos, the shoes, the movies, everything.