Alton Brown Quotes

The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.

Making a good meal for someone, even if it is nothing complicated, is an expression of love: it is an invitation to share, for one dinner at least, in our common humanity.

Some people write a thank you note for a gift, and it's three pages long, and some people write a thank you note, and it's five sentences - that's me. I like to pare away words because I don't want to waste anyone's time.

I truly respect the people who are working. If they want an autograph from Patti LaBelle, they are going to get it. I have never separated myself from them. I never think you are better than the next one.

My friends love coming over because they get fed.

It was ingrained in me to be gracious.

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.

Southern people are bigger-hearted and kinder than I had any right to expect.

If I go to your home, and you're cooking me a meal, I will eat whatever you put in front of me.

Humility is a virtue, and it is a virtue innate in guests.

I come here to speak poetry. It will always be in the grass. It will also be necessary to bend down to hear it. It will always be too simple to be discussed in assemblies.

Octavia Spencer rocks. But just as a human being, she's so down-to-earth. Talk about being pleasantly surprised. You walk onto set, and she's making these jokes, and she's playing around with the cast and the crew, and she invited all to her house for a dinner party. She's just a genuinely good person.

It is boorish to live ungraciously: the giving is the hardest part; what does it cost to add a smile?

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

The compliment that I like more than anything is when my family tells me I'm the same Ryan. I never want to become a celeb who forgets about anybody or has a big head about himself.

So I show appreciation for the little gifts that have been handed to me.

Kindness can come from someone on Twitter, it can come from someone on the street, it can come from someone at work. Without kindness, I don't know what I would do. The greatest part of life is the simple things.

My husband and I have very similar desires when we're entertaining. We want everybody to feel comfortable and welcome, to know they can kick off their shoes and be able to come right in.

You don't need the White House to please people. You can be 24, earning $22,000 a year, and have people over to your tiny apartment. It's all about sharing and thinking about what will make others happy.

I love where I come from. The people there are good people. When they say, 'Thank you,' they mean it.

In my opinion, if you're entertaining guests, you should do everything possible to make them comfortable.

Where I'm from is humble, and people are mad appreciative of what they have.

Jack Black, I think, is probably the nicest person I've ever met in my life.

We didn't invent anything new. Hospitality has been around forever.

It's relaxing to be around somebody that you don't have to try so hard around.