"The best inheritance a father can leave his children is a good example."

“What if I jumped out of an airplane with a couple of tanks of helium and one huge, un-inflated balloon? Then, while falling, I release the helium and fill the balloon. How long of a fall would I need in order for the balloon to slow me enough that I could land safely?”

“It is good to see two women from Britain's minority ethnic communities fighting in seats that Labour won at the last election.”

“Make a decision to be successful right now. Most people never decide to be wealthy and that is why they retire poor.”

“Job security lasts only as long as the customer is satisfied. Nobody owes anybody else a living.”

“Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.”

“I maintain an ongoing survey of Internet Publishing and self publishing, so that it is now possible for any writer with a book to get it published at nominal cost or free, and to have it on sale at booksellers like Amazon.com.”

“You know if we were to look back and how we were in 1955 living in Jim Crow, living in segregation, living in segregated schools, its hard to believe that it was America, but it really was.”

Source : "Anna Deavere Smith: Let Me Down Easy". Interview with Steve Mirsky, www.scientificamerican.com. December 20, 2010.

“To be a gourmet you must start early, as you must begin riding early to be a good horseman. You must live in France, your father must have been a gourmet. Nothing in life must interest you but your stomach.”

Source : Ludwig Bemelmans (1964). “La bonne table”