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… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
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… — Frances Mayes Copy Share Image
If you've got a plot the size of a car or a tiny yard in Italy, you're going to be growing tomatoes and basil… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“Always, I liked the infinitive 'to go.' Let's go, let's go. let's really go. 'Andare' was the first verb I learned to conjugate in… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“[As Garibaldi says,] 'Sleep, my dear Chevalley, sleep, that is what Sicilians want, and they will always hate anyone who tries to wake them...” — Frances Mayes Copy Share
All afternoon in the deck chair, I try to describe to my notebook the colors of the water and sky. How to translate sunlight… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
The Only Thing More Surprising Than the Chance She's Taking...Is Where It's Taking Her! — Frances Mayes Copy Share
The Italians have their priorities right: They're driven, they do their work, but they really enjoy the day-to-day and they don't put off the… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
Anytime the perfume of orange and lemon groves wafts in the window; the human body has to feel suffused with a languorous well-being. — Frances Mayes Copy Share
It’s daunting to find the language so foreign, so distant, but also so thrilling. One is absolved of responsibility when the language is incomprehensible. — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“There are reasons we congregate in these hot spots- to worship beauty and to feel its effects light up the electrolytes in the bloodstream.” — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“And my mother, whose radius of travel was short, tied the letters with ribbon and kept them in her desk, When you get the… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
I got the idea that to write books would be the best way to spend a life. I never thought of anything else that… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“[As Chevalley says,] 'Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect...” — Frances Mayes Copy Share
“At Bramasole, the first secret spot that draws me outside is a stump and board bench on a high terrace overlooking the lake and… — Frances Mayes Copy Share
