"Naked a man comes into the world and naked he leaves it, after all is said and done he leaves nothing except the good deeds he leaves behind."

“In my early days, I copied the great French chefs, like most chefs do. Copying is not bad. Copying and not recognizing that you are copying is bad. For me, when I go to a restaurant and am served a dish influenced by something we created at elBulli, if it's well done, it makes me extremely happy.”

“I spent my whole life trying not to be careless. Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men.”

“One of the things my career as an artist might say to young artists is: The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best. And unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art.”

Source : "The Dichotomy of Sally Mann: “The Family and the Land” at the Photographers’ Gallery, London" by Marina Cashdan, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 10, 2010.

“Men and swords. My father said that if you put any able-bodied man, no matter how peaceful, into a room with a sword and a practice dummy and leave him alone, eventually the man would pick up the sword and try to stab the dummy. It is human nature.”

Source : Ilona Andrews (2007). “Magic Bites”, p.110, Penguin

“Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.”

“I've never been to jail. I've never been arrested. I've never been locked up.”

“My cat did that the other day when he came in from the garden.”

“You can't just be you. You have to double yourself. You have to read books on subjects you know nothing about. You have to travel to places you never thought of traveling. You have to meet every kind of person and endlessly stretch what you know.”