“I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. For my money, they are the bird.”

There’s no reason to be the richest man in the cemetery. You can’t do any business from there.

I’ve only had two rules. Do all you can and do it the best you can. It’s the only way you ever get that feeling of accomplishing something.

You got to like your work. You have got to like what you are doing, you have got to be doing something worthwhile so you can like it – because it is worthwhile, that it makes a difference, don’t you see?

One has to remember that every failure can be a stepping stone to something better.

People are just like farm equipment. They rust out quicker than they wear out.

Feed the poor and get rich or feed the rich and get poor.

Hard work beats all the tonics and vitamins in the world.

I’ve read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don’t even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie.

I just say the moral out of my life is don’t quit at age 65, maybe your boat hasn’t come in yet. Mine hadn’t.

I was sixty-six years old. I still had to make a living. I looked at my social security check of 105 dollars and decided to use that to try to franchise my chicken recipe. Folks had always liked my chicken.

Work is the basis of living. I’ll never retire. A man’ll rust out quicker than he’ll wear out.

I made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no hours, nor amount of labor, nor amount of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me. And I have done that ever since, and I win by it. I know.

I am not too proud of having my name associated with some of my restaurants.

To me, my recipes are priceless.

The food I’ve liked in my time is American country cookin’.

A lot of learned men think people really are the food they’ve eaten.

Do not taste food while you’re cooking. You may lose your nerve to serve it.

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.

In Texas, we cook bacon a little differently than most folks…MACHINE-GUN BACON.

Christmas for me is all about spending time with my family. I cherish any chance we have to spend all day together making gingerbread houses, baking cookies, or sitting around and watching movies.

I love being at home and cooking and baking.

I never really cook from recipes. But the worst is when something turns out great and I can’t figure out how to make it again!

Actually, I’m happiest in Williams-Sonoma in New York. That’s a wonderful cooking store.

Since my kitchen is the most important part of my home, I want to be creative and innovative, not only in its aesthetic, but also in the tools that I’m using to cook.