For anyone addicted to reading commonplace books . . . finding a good new one is much like enduring a familiar recurrence of malaria, with fever, fits of shaking, strange dreams . . . . M. F. K. Fisher More Quotes by M. F. K. Fisher More Quotes From M. F. K. Fisher It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one. M. F. K. Fisher writingfoodreality since we must eat to live, we might as well do it with both grace and gusto. M. F. K. Fisher gustomealsgrace The smell of good bread baking, M. F. K. Fisher smellfoodwater Wine and cheese are ageless companions, like aspirin and aches, or June and moon, or good people and noble ventures. M. F. K. Fisher hurtdrinkingfood I am more modest now, but I still think that one of the pleasantest of all emotions is to know that I, I with my brain and my hands, have nourished my beloved few, that I have concocted a stew or a story, a rarity or a plain dish, to sustain them truly against the hungers of the world. M. F. K. Fisher foodhandsthinking No yoga exercise, no meditation in a chapel filled with music will rid you of your blues better than the humble task of making your own bread. M. F. K. Fisher yogahumbleexercise If time, so fleeting, must like humans die, let it be filled with good food and good talk, and then embalmed in the perfumes of conviviality. M. F. K. Fisher perfumefleetinggood-food Dining partners, regardless of gender, social standing, or the years they've lived, should be chosen for their ability to eat - and drink! - with the right mixture of abandon and restraint. They should enjoy food, and look upon its preparation and its degustation as one of the human arts. M. F. K. Fisher preparationyearsart Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly. M. F. K. Fisher healthfoodlove gastronomy is and always has been connected with its sister art of love. M. F. K. Fisher eatingfoodart Sharing our meals should be a joyful and a trustful act, rather than the cursory fulfillment of our social obligations. M. F. K. Fisher joyfulmealseating I believe that one of the most dignified ways we are capable of, to assert and then reassert our dignity in the face of poverty and war's fears and pains, is to nourish ourselves with all possible skill, delicacy, and ever-increasing enjoyment. M. F. K. Fisher painwarbelieve A well-made Martini or Gibson, correctly chilled and nicely served, has been more often my true friend than any two-legged creature. M. F. K. Fisher true-friendbeertwo One martini is just right. Two martinis are too many. Three martinis are never enough. M. F. K. Fisher threeenoughtwo Write one good clean sentence and put a period at the end of it. Then write another one. M. F. K. Fisher cleanendswriting A writing cook and a cooking writer must be bold at the desk as well as the stove. M. F. K. Fisher deskscookingwriting I think that when two people are able to weave that kind of invisible thread of understanding and sympathy between each other, that delicate web, they should not risk tearing it. It is too rare, and it lasts too short a time at best. M. F. K. Fisher lovetwothinking When I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and it is all one. M. F. K. Fisher hungerwritingfood Too few of us, perhaps, feel that breaking of bread, the sharing of salt, the common dipping into one bowl, mean more than satisfaction of a need. We make such primal things as casual as tunes heard over a radio, forgetting the mystery and strength in both. M. F. K. Fisher tunesmeanneeds It is puzzling to me that otherwise sensitive people develop a real docility about the obvious necessity of eating, at least once a day, in order to stay alive. Often they lose their primal enjoyment of flavors and odors and textures to the point of complete unawareness. And if ever they question this progressive numbing-off, they shrug helplessly in the face of mediocrity everywhere. Bit by bit, hour by hour, they say, we are being forced to accept the not-so-good as the best, since there is little that is even good to compare it with. M. F. K. Fisher medicinerealphilosophy
