Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes
Frances Mayes is an American university professor, poet, memoirist, essayist, and novelist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
Date of Birth4 April 1940
CountryUnited States of America
memories tricksters courses
Memory is, of course, a trickster.
memories favorite-words two
The urge to travel feels magnetic. Two of my favorite words are linked: departure time. And travel whets the emotions, turns upside down the memory bank, and the golden coins scatter.
memories
As travel pushes me forward, memory keeps dragging me backward.
morning memories home
Travel releases spontaneity. You become a godlike creature full or choice, free to visit the stately pleasure domes, make love in the morning, sketch a bell tower, read a history of Byzantium, stare for one hour at the face of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Madonna dei fusi.' You open, as in childhood, and--for a time--receive this world. There's visceral aspect, too--the huntress who is free. Free to go, free to return home bringing memories to lay on the hearth.
memories forever spots
Although I am a person who expected to be rooted in one spot forever, as it has turned out I love having the memories of living in many places.
insist neighbours single unhealthy
When my husband is away and I'm by myself, my neighbours will insist I eat with them every single night because they see it as unhealthy to eat by yourself.
people
In America, people are just so straightforward when they dislike things.
art food history initially italy people stayed
I think I went to Italy initially for the art, architecture, food and history, but I stayed there because of the people in Cortona.
circles giving world
Poems give you the lives of others and then circle in on your own inner world.
orange body fruit
Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being.
venice magic world
Venice, the most touristy place in the world, is still just completely magic to me.
southern speech metaphor
I’ll always marvel at the liveliness of southern speech-so full of metaphor and hyperbole, quirks and vividness.
ideas people house
I'm just fascinated by houses. In another life, I'd have probably trained as an architect. If I had enough money, I'd collect them like other people collect teapots. I don't know why I love them so much. I'm just very interested in the idea of a house as a metaphor for the way one lives.
people tables innovative
What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we've sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.