Toklas Quotes & Sayings

Some time all kinds of letters will be published to the ineffable delight of endless readers. — Alice B. Toklas

I'll always be Alice Toklas if you'll be Gertrude Stein. — Gertrude Stein

Dawn comes slowly but dusk is rapid. — Alice B. Toklas

Illness sets the mind free sometimes to roam and surmise. — Alice B. Toklas

Irrational fear feeds on itself and grows. You must deny it. — Dean Koontz

This has been a most wonderful evening. Gertrude has said things tonight it will take her 10 years to understand. — Alice B. Toklas

Experience is never at bargain price. — Alice B. Toklas

But I don't want nutrition. I want food! — Alice B. Toklas

The French approach to food is characteristic; they bring to their consideration of the table the same appreciation, respect, intelligence and lively interest that they have for the other arts, for painting, for literature, and for the theatre. We foreigners living in France respect and appreciate this point of view but deplore their too strict observance of a tradition which will not admit the slightest deviation in a seasoning or the suppression of a single ingredient. Restrictions aroused our American ingenuity, we found combinations and replacements which pointed in new directions and created a fresh and absorbing interest in everything pertaining to the kitchen. — Alice B. Toklas

I have just learned a delicious French usage. On wedding invitations when they say the mass is at noon they mean one o'clock -when they say at noon precise they mean half after twelve - and when they say at very precisely noon they mean noon. — Alice B. Toklas

Sex is perhaps like culture - a luxury that only becomes an art after generations of leisurely acquaintance. Why we scarcely approach either as individuals - it's mass propulsion still! — Alice B. Toklas

The first gathering of salads, radishes and herbs made me feel like a mother about her baby - how could anything so beautiful be mine? — Alice B. Toklas

Writing is how I understand everything that happens. Writing is the only way I know to move on. — Delia Ephron

As if a cookbook had anything to do with writing. — Alice B. Toklas

Tis more dishonourable to distrust a friend than to be deceived by him. — Francois De La Rochefoucauld

I had often said that I would write, the wives of geniuses I have sat with. I have sat with so many. I have sat with wives who were not wives, of geniuses who were real geniuses. I have sat with real wives of geniuses who were not real geniuses. In short, I have sat very often and very long with many wives and wives of many geniuses.' Gertrude Stein wrote this in the voice of her partner, Alice B. Toklas, Stein being apparently the genius, Alice apparently the wife.
'I am nothing,' Alice said after Gertrude dies, 'but a memory of her.'
... the flashing blues and red made him look ill, then well, then ill again ... — Lauren Groff

In the menu, there should be a climax and a culmination. Come to it gently. One will suffice. — Alice B. Toklas

You have to learn to be a follower before you become a leader. — Charlie Munger

Godiva was tired and old and Gertrude Stein in spring bought a new car ... — Alice B. Toklas

I can't tell you what to do. No one can. But as the mother of two children, I can tell you what most moms will: that mothering is absurdly hard and profoundly sweet. Like the best thing you ever did. Like if you think you want to have a baby, you probably should.
I say this in spite of the fact that children are giant endless suck machines. They don't give a whit if you need to sleep or eat or pee or get your work done or go out to a party naked and oiled up in a homemade Alice B. Toklas mask. They take everything. They will bring you the furthest edge of your personality and abso-fucking-lutely to your knees.
They will also give you everything back. Not just all they take, but many of the things you lost before they came along as well. — Cheryl Strayed

I believe deeply that every one of us has an individual talent or trait that can be used to make a difference in some way. — Jeff Orlowski

What is sauce for the goose may be sauce for the gander but is not necessarily sauce for the chicken, the duck, the turkey or the guinea hen. — Alice B. Toklas

When people are in love, I don't see anything wrong with it in the world. If they choose to live their lives and get married, why should we interfere? A lot of people don't agree with me, but that's how I feel. — LaToya Jackson

The French write plays and paint as naturally as we play jazz - it's just a national gift. — Alice B. Toklas

There is nothing that is comparable to it, as satisfactory or as thrilling, as gathering the vegetables one has grown. — Alice B. Toklas

What is the answer?
[ I [Alice B Toklas] was silent ]
In that case, what is the question? — Gertrude Stein