Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by John Baxter

Quote by John Baxter

“Bowls and dishes have to be ferried to and from the table, plates filled and passed, sauce boats replenished. extra bread brought, dishes explained, recipes summarized -- not to mention arguments adjudicated, reminiscences patiently listened to, glances exchanged, eyebrows raised. . . all the choreography of a social event that no menu can possibly reflect. Every meal is a world of its own, from which we emerge, however subtly, changed.”

Quote by John Baxter

Book:Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas
Create image

Work

Immoveable Feast: A Paris Christmas

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

John Baxter

Browse famous quotes and profile details for John Baxter. more

You May Also Like

“Sitting on the porch alone, listening to them fixing supper, he felt again the indignation he had felt before, the sense of loss and the aloneness, the utter defenselessness that was each man's lot, sealed up in his bee cell from all the others in the world. But the smelling of boiling vegetables and pork reached him from the inside, the aloneness left him for a while. The warm moist smell promised other people lived and were preparing supper. He listened to the pouring and the thunder rumblings that sounded hollow like they were in a rainbarrel, shared the excitement and the coziness of the buzzing insects that had sought refuge on the porch, and now and then he slapped detachedly at the mosquitoes, making a sharp crack in the pouring buzzing silence. The porch sheltered him from all but the splashes of the drops that hit the floor and their spray touched him with a pleasant chill. And he was secure, because someewhere out beyond the wall of water humanity still existed, and was preparing supper.”

SecurityFoodComfortSolitudeRainDinnerCompanionshipHawaiiSupper
Book:From Here to Eternity
Create image

“Me and the folks who buy my food are like the Indians -- we just want to opt out. That's all the Indians ever wanted -- to keep their tepees, to give their kids herbs instead of patent medicines and leeches. They didn't care if there was a Washington, D.C., or a Custer or a USDA; just leave us alone. But the Western mind can't bear an opt-out option. We're going to have to refight the Battle of the Little Big Horn to preserve the right to opt out, or your grandchildren and mine will have no choice but to eat amalgamated, irradiated, genetically prostituted, barcoded, adulterated fecal spam from the centralized processing conglomerate.”

FoodOrganicIndustrial Agricultural
Book:The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
Create image

“In any case I just cannot imagine attaching so much importance to any food or treat that I would grow irate or bitter at the mention of the suffering of animals. A pig to me will always seem more important than a pork rind. There is the risk here of confusing realism with cynicism, moral stoicism with moral sloth, of letting oneself become jaded and lazy and self-satisfied--what used to be called an 'appetitive' person.”

FoodEatingEthicsMeatAnimals
Book:Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy
Create image