Mark Kurlansky

“'Cod' was a great story. It let me talk about the environment without putting people to sleep.”

“The inventors we remember didn't invent anything. They're the people who took somebody else's invention and made it commercially viable.”

“Adults have pretty much made up their minds - they like you to the extent that you confirm what they already believe.”

“Things that become important to economies become ritualized and become deified. Because I'm Jewish, I always thought it was interesting that in Judaism, salt seals a bargain, particularly the covenant with God. Some people, when they bless bread, they dip it in salt. Same thing exists in Islam.”

“Havana, for all its smells, sweat, crumbling walls, isolation, and difficult history, is the most romantic city in the world.”

“Cheap fish has usually been caught in careless ways.”