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
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.
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.
memories tricksters courses
Memory is, of course, a trickster.
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.
country people together
I find that other countries have this or this, but Italy is the only one that has it all for me. The culture, the cuisine, the people, the landscape, the history. Just everything to me comes together there.
fun book writing
I got the idea that to write books would be the best way to spend a life. I never thought of anything else that seemed like half as much fun, although in my next life I would like to be an architect, too, so I can have an easier time restoring houses.
landscape honey bread
The undulent landscape looks serene in every direction. Honey-colored farmhouses, gently placed in hollows, rise like thick loaves of bread set out to cool.
chance surprising
The Only Thing More Surprising Than the Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her!