Sirio Maccioni

“I was born in a house where my family lived for 300 years. I was born in the home where my grandfather was born in.”

“Our pasta primavera was born when I promised fresh pasta with tomatoes and basil to critic Craig Claiborne, but we had no tomatoes.”

“We are thrilled with the response we are getting to Le Cirque at The Leela Palace New Delhi. Our goal is to bring a luxury dining experience consistent with international standards of excellence to the expanding and discerning clientele in India.”

“All Italians speak Spanish without studying.”

“I try to be happy, but I'm never happy. I don't believe in happiness. I was happy yesterday, but today and tomorrow is a different story.”

“In the eighties, we had the ladies who lunch, the power lunch - everything was power. At the beginning of the nineties, things changed.”

“I lived in Cuba - I was there for one year in the 1950s. We built the famous nightclub, which is still there, Tropicana, and a restaurant, Montecatini, that I opened is still there. I was there when the U.S. ambassador said everyone must leave because Castro was arriving the next morning.”

“No one could touch the home cooking of an Italian woman. French women, they are very intelligent, very sexy - but they don't like to cook.”

“My wife, she is so good. She was a famous singer - had a show in Carnegie Hall, did a big city tour for RCA. Then she made the mistake of marrying me. The next year, another tour, but the third year, she had Mario and said, 'Either I'm a mother or a singer.'”

“When I want to really eat great, I eat at home when my wife cooks.”

“I started to work at the Colony in March 1958. I remember my first day because the telephone started to ring, and it was Sinatra, three for lunch, his usual table; Onassis, two for lunch, usual table; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Leland Hayward, Truman Capote, all wanting their usual tables.”

“My philosophy is that one must always give a lady what she wants. That never goes out of style.”

“I get along with everybody because I don't believe anybody.”

“Le Cirque is strictly New York people. New York people don't eat at home; New York people go out.”

“Paris is great. I stay at the Ritz Paris - I'm good friends with the Director, Frank Klein, and the owner. I lived there 3 years; I was the only foreigner working at Maxim's. They only took French, which was a mistake.”

“Jimmy Carter is the most intelligent. Jimmy Carter is a good man.”

“I really hate to get old. I don't talk about it much. And sometimes at night I wake up and I have nightmares that I know how old I am.”

“If you don't have a pool in Las Vegas, you have to put your children in the icebox.”

“It didn't get any more glamorous than Havana, Cuba, in the 1950s. I used to go there when I was a waiter on a cruise ship.”

“One time, I was young. I was skinny. I was elegant. Getting old is terrible.”