—I OFFERED UP MY INNOCENCE AND GOT REPAID WITH SCORN

 

 

The Last Interview—Anthony Bourdain

 

 

--if you don’t like sex, if you don’t like music or movies, chances are you’re not eating that well, either.

 

--I’m always reading a lot of food writers, and I’m always thinking, this person writes about food like they’ve never had good sex in their life.

 

--I know what it’s like to wake up in the morning, ashamed of what I did yesterday, and I don’t like that feeling.

 

--I’m one of those annoying people, if I read a book, or see a movie, or listen to a record I really, really like, if I could come over to your house and shove it in your hands and sit there and, you know, listen to it with you to make sure you don’t miss a thing, or re-read every line, you know, I’d do it in a heartbeat, every time. I would.

 

--I’m really just here to listen. 

 

--I used to think that basically, the whole world, that all of humanity were basically bastards. I’ve since found that most people seem to be pretty nice—that they're basically good people, doing the best they can.

 

--I think the most boring thing about my life is that I was a junkie.

 

--Being a heroin addict was fantastic preparation for being a celebrity. In both cases, you have to have a really sharp intuition--you have to know if the person in front of you is who they say there are, if they will deliver what they promise you.

 

--I benefited very much from the low expectations people had of me early on.

 

--The world was supposed to be far more beautiful and romantic and gentle, and I learned pretty early on it wasn’t going to be like that.

--I always try to find a way to like the bad guy a little bit.

 

--It doesn’t make everything better to insult someone, but it helps. 

 

--When you travel with no agenda other than asking simple questions, people tell you extraordinary things.

 

--If you don’t take the time to listen, to take in the everyday things, the things that happened before the news story—there’s not much hope in understanding them.

 

--My first obligation, I feel, is to be a good guest. It’s a strategy I highly recommend if you’re going to make friends and have a good conversation.

 

--I like grey areas. I like ambiguity. 

 

--I don’t have to agree with a guy to enjoy their company. I assume there’s at least one shared characteristic between us: empathy. I’m good at looking at things from the other guy’s point of view. I can put myself in their shoes. I’m willing to reach out. I’m a good listener. The overlap pretty much ends there.

 

--If you go in not as a journalist, but just as someone who’s asking simple questions like, “What do you like to eat? What makes you happy?” people tend to drop their defenses and tell you fascinating things that are very revealing.

 

--For me, it’s about—How can we do something different? How can we outdo ourselves? How can we do something strange and beautiful that will terrify our network? 

 

--To me, it’s poetry, the sound of mobsters talking.

 

--When you write about food, it’s like writing pornography.

 

--So, look, the history of the world is on your plate. Every plate of food is an expression of, often, a long struggle, a long story that someone wants to share, if only you’re willing to listen.

 

--According to Tony, it turned out that there are a million ways to say, “Suck my dick.”

 

--The problem was that those knives were never sharp enough. No matter how much I ground them down or worked on them, they were never sharp enough.

 

--I have always used language to survive.