Ina Garten > Quotes

“You can be miserable before you have a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie but you can't be miserable while you are eating a cookie.”
― Ina Garten

“Food is about nurturing: not only physical but also emotional nurturing.”
― Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

“There's a wonderful quote attributed to George Lucas: "We're all living in cages with the door wide open." That was me until I realized I had the power - and the responsibility - to set myself free. To step out of the cage of whatever I'd experienced in the past, to think for myself, and to believe in my choices.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“When you're young, you marry someone who has the qualities you wish you had...As you grow older, one of two things happens. Either you start to find those difference increasingly annoying and you grow apart, or...you gradually become more like the other, even as you remain who you are".”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Your 20s are the time when you master what you think you're supposed to do. But in your 30s, when you've figured out what you like and don't like, and you're more confident, you can move on to what you really want to do, which might be totally different.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Stand up for yourself, even when it’s hard, even when it means taking a risk. And in any endeavor, find just one person who really believes in you.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Cooking is one of the great gifts you can give to those you love. It says “you’re important enough to me to spend the time and effort to cook for you.”
― Ina Garten, Cooking for Jeffrey: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

“I also learned that it’s important to listen to advice and then decide if it’s true to who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“I concentrate on what's in front of me, and work hard, because I love what I do, and I have fun doing it; and then I leave the door open, so I'll be ready when the luck happens.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“I actually think that the food our mothers made may not be what we are nostalgic for. It’s more an emotional picture of a mother who was always there, knew what we needed, loved us, let us run free when we wanted to explore.”
― Ina Garten, The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

“Slow down, they seemed to say, you can take a little twirl and still get exactly where you're going. Such a nice approach to life.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“He was telling me that I was too smart not to do something with my life, which no one had ever said to me before.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Sometimes you have to trust that the hard times, the pain and the tragedies in life have purpose. They may make no sense at the time, may bring you to your knees and you will wonder why this hell is happening and if you’ll ever get through it. But trust is your trajectory, sending you along your path, and if you listen, learn, heal and grow along the way, things will one day make sense.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“But in France, these little traffic circles are a reminder that life is not about straight lines or the shortest distance between two points. Slow down, they seemed to say, you can take a little twirl and still get exactly where you’re going. Such a nice approach to life.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“A good home should gather you up in its arms like a warm cashmere blanket, soothe your hurt feelings, and prepare you to go back out into that big bad world tomorrow all ready to fight the dragons.”
― Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again: A Cookbook

“I have often thought that everyone should work in retail at some point in their lives, kind of like mandatory military service. They would understand two things—first, that serving customers all day can be a very difficult job, and second, that being kind is so much more effective than being nasty.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Sometimes, if you're lucky, the person sitting next to you at a dinner party turns out to be really interesting, and you have a lively conversation that makes you think, I want to know more.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Most of life's problems can be solved with a good cookie.”
― Ina Garten

“TRADITIONS REASSURE US THAT WE BELONG TOGETHER,”
― Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family

“I’d like to think that when I invite friends to my house, they know what I’m really saying is, “I love you; come for dinner.”
― Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa Family Style: Easy Ideas and Recipes That Make Everyone Feel Like Family

“I’m a big believer in collaboration, in playing nicely with others. I think it makes everyone better because we can learn from each other. Business doesn’t have to be cutthroat and isolating. It’s much more fun and productive to exchange ideas, to be genuinely curious about how other people do things, to be generous, and to root for a competitor’s success.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“the best deals are the ones where everyone walks away feeling as though they got exactly what they wanted.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“For me, cooking wasn't the goal of entertaining; being with friends was the goal, so I wanted to make easy recipes that anyone could prepare and know their guests would be delighted.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Good architecture makes me want to do a better job, to live up to the promise of the space.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“My friend Maile Carpenter, the remarkable editor of Food Network Magazine, who's wise beyond her years, told me that the definition of a good marriage is that each person thinks they got the better deal. That's exactly how I feel about Jeffrey as we approach our fifty-sixth anniversary, and I know he feels the same way about me.”
― Ina Garten

“This is the thing about being in Paris. I always say that you can’t be inspired sitting at home alone by yourself. You have to go out into the world and see what people are doing, and that will trigger something else in you, and then you’ll do it your way.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“cool to room temperature.”
― Ina Garten, Barefoot Contessa at Home: Everyday Recipes You'll Make Over and Over Again: A Cookbook

“I think what I loved most, aside from Jeffrey’s constant company and undivided attention, was that there were no straight lines between where we were and where we wanted to be. Our route was dictated by whimsy, not logic.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“I concentrate on what's in front of me, and work hard, because I love what I do, and have fun doing it; and then I leave the door open, so I'll be ready when the luck happens.”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens

“Why do successful women always say they’re lucky, and successful men say they got there by the force of their talent?”
― Ina Garten, Be Ready When the Luck Happens