Kate Christensen

“Even after he was gone, I still loved my father. I looked Norwegian, like him, with a long face, strong jaw, thin mouth, and flashing eyes. And, like him, I was verbal, easygoing, and low-ke...”

“Whenever possible, I use local, fresh ingredients, just because it tastes and feels better to eat an egg or a tomato or a hamburger that wasn't flown halfway around the world, that didn't tr...”

“My 50th birthday approaching felt like a big milestone to me. I've lived half a century. If I write about food and use my life as a fulcrum to move the story along, maybe I've lived long eno...”

“Broccoli, when overboiled, produces a sulfuric stench that causes children to gag the instant they enter the house.”

“It's hard for me to generalize about kids and divorce. I think every family's experience is different; some kids are devastated by it, others relieved, and so forth, no matter what generatio...”

“Iggy Pop has a voice that's somehow simultaneously self-mocking, wild, precise, amused, righteous, cool, contained and bold. I don't know how he does what he does.”

“Iggy Pop is God, if God looked half that good with his shirt off.”

“On Halloween, kids get to assume, for one night the outward forms of their innermost dread, and they're also allowed to take candy from strangers - the scariest thing of all.”

“I love the perspective afforded by having lived five decades, a degree of bemused and muted calm, a relief from the insistent demands of a turbulent ego and rampant ambition. I'd love to sta...”

“I think there's a part of my brain where food, language, and memory all intersect, and it's really powerful. I think I'm not alone in this.”

“A relative of poison ivy and poison sumac, the cashew contains the same rash-inducing chemicals, known as urushiols, as its kin.”

“David Levi is a teacher as well as a chef, and, like most teachers, he loves to talk.”

“Littlenecks and cherrystones are chewy and sweet on the half shell with mignonette, served raw. But a well-cooked clam is a toothsome, tender thing, full of that magical stuff known as clam...”

“The male muse is an unaccountably rare thing in art. Where does that leave female artists looking for inspiration?”

“Famously cancer fighting, laden with vitamins, minerals, soluble fiber, and phytonutrients, broccoli and its relatives are among the healthiest ingredients of the human diet.”

“Now that I'm 50 and respectably settled in New England and markedly happier and more contented than I was in my youth, I modestly hope there's time to realize some of my youthful goals befor...”

“Broccoli gets such a bad rap. This is perplexing to those of us who love that green, treelike, stalky vegetable.”

“Living in New York City is one constant, ongoing literary pilgrimage. For 20 years, I lived among the ghosts of great writers and walked where they had walked.”

“I procrastinate all morning. That's when I get my office work done and answer e-mails and see what's on the Internet and do laundry.”

“Ham is undoubtedly one of the most universally beloved of meats, at least in those parts of the world where it's not prohibited.”