Mireille Guiliano

“Just as established products and brands need updating to stay alive and vibrant, you periodically need to refresh or reinvent yourself.”

“I'm not a great consumer. I always ask myself, 'Do I really need that piece?' I have friends who have 300 pairs of shoes; how would you leave the house in the morning?”

“I love my kitchen. For Manhattan, I have a rather decent-size kitchen, and it has an opening that gives out to the dining room, which has a window with a view of the city and in the distance the Statue of Liberty.”

“Women are smarter by basic instinct and by what we have to do to multitask at home and at work. My mother did that 50 years ago, but it wasn't called multitasking or stress back then. She had a job, two kids and the meals to make with no cook or maid. My father would come home every day and expect lunch. He was a nice guy, but he was clueless!”

“I cannot live without flowers everywhere. I grew up having a big garden, the size of a city block, in Rombas.”

“French women don't have too many clothes - a few good pieces that last for a while and are classic and timeless.”

“People are unhappy when they are on diets, because it's 'don't do this, don't do that, do this, do that.'”

“Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.”

“Being and working in America, it's very important to work hard, work smart and work in a certain way. France and Europe has, with the tradition and culture, it's slow-moving and it's not always good.”

“Scientifically, it has been proven that after three bites, your palate has been satisfied. It doesn't matter what you eat. So if you eat one boule of ice cream, that's all you need. You don't have to eat pint after pint after pint.”

“French women love to shop and prepare food. They love to talk about what they have bought and made. It's a deeply natural love, but one that is erased in many other cultures. Most French women learn it from their mothers, some from their fathers. But if your parents aren't French, you can still learn it yourself.”

“In the U.S., too many yogurts are filled with corn syrup, preservatives, artificial this and that. To me, this is poison.”

“Quality of life is very important in France. I have many friends who turned down promotions and more money because it would affect their quality of life as a couple or a mother.”

“Give us being and feeling over having any day.”

“When I grew up in France, I was a normal size. And then I came to the United States and I gained 20 pounds.”

“If you believe you can shed pounds quickly by force of will and deprivation, you will in all likelihood not only regain the ones you lost, but add a few more besides.”

“Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.”

“There is no lasting glory in rapid weight loss.”

“I can never leave a bookstore without buying a book. I read four or five at a time.”

“In America, you look at food as bad and guilty. In France, we love food and we enjoy food; food is pleasure.”