“Perhaps one of the loveliest things we can offer another person is a meal that does not need defending.”

“I like the possibility that the books I most want to write might still be ahead of me. Not despite my age. Because of it.”

Some evenings I stand in front of the pantry longer than I need to. There are jars of chickpeas beside tins of tomatoes. Olive oil from Portugal. A bottle of soy sauce that has somehow become as essential as salt. Smoked paprika. Tahini. A basket of lemons. None of it seems to belong to the same story, and yet together they describe the way we eat more honestly than anything else could. I begin making dinner without thinking too much about it. Garlic in olive oil. Herbs from

"The boats arrive slowly enough to interrupt nobody and everyone at once."

“The breeze carried salt, conversation, and the distant sound of ferry horns.”