"I'm actually a very shy person, which is why I always chose to be in the kitchen. You can make people happy and entertain them, without really being there. You can make a very short appearance and then say, 'I've got something on the stove, gotta go!"
Source : Letter to Marie Howe, 3 Apr. 1919. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations notes: "Steffens had composed the expression before he had even arrived in Russia."