If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

I like to eat and I love the diversity of foods.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake Up and Live!

Never mistake motion for action.

The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands.

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.

Everyone has highs and lows that they have to learn from, but every morning I start off with a good head on my shoulders, saying to myself, 'It's going to be a good day!'.

In fair weather prepare for foul.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins.

In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

How hard it is to have the beautiful interdependence of marriage and yet be strong in oneself alone.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

If you don't want to work you have to work to earn enough money so that you won't have to work.

The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own we have no soul of our own civilization.

Father's Day is hopefully a time when the culture says, 'This is our moment to look at who our men and boys are.'

Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.

An organization, no matter how well designed, is only as good as the people who live and work in it.

Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.

Food, in the end, in our own tradition, is something holy. It's not about nutrients and calories. It's about sharing. It's about honesty. It's about identity.

My house is my refuge, an emotional piece of architecture, not a cold piece of convenience.

Always expect the unexpected. Right around Thanksgiving, when the new Alex Cross will be out. It's called Four Blind Mice and it's a pretty amazing story about several murders inside the military.

New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.

I like food. I like eating. And I don't want to deprive myself of good food.