Peter Mayle Quotes

#1. When I was very young in London, I had a bank account, which didn't have a great deal in it. I should think at least every three months the bank manager would call me up and threaten to strangle me because I had no money, and I was writing checks.

Peter Mayle

#2. I would dearly love to resist the temptation, if you can call it that, to worry. It's boring, it's anti-social, it's unproductive and it's depressing.

Peter Mayle

#3. Gu himself presides over the room- a genial, noisy man with the widest, jauntiest, must luxuriant and ambitious mustache I have ever seen, permanently fighting gravity and the razor in its attempts to make contact with Gu's eyebrows.

Peter Mayle

#4. What a marvelous sunset,' she said. 'Yes,' replied her husband. 'Most impressive for such a small village.

Peter Mayle

#5. Beh oui. Better sticky than burned.

Peter Mayle

#6. Prescription for writer's block: fear of poverty.

Peter Mayle

#7. And, as for the oil, it is a masterpiece. You'll see.
Before dinner that night, we tested it, dripping it onto slices of bread that had been rubbed with the flesh of tomatoes. It was like eating sunshine.

Peter Mayle

#8. There are plenty of miserable millionaires all over the place.

Peter Mayle

#9. You don't like it when a French housewife gets mad at you. If she gets steam behind her, she is an unstoppable creature.

Peter Mayle

#10. I'd rather live precariously in my own office than comfortably in somebody else's.

Peter Mayle

#11. Sundays in France have a different atmosphere to other days, with fewer phone calls, no postman, no delivery men and no one banging on the door.

Peter Mayle

#12. One must never forget that life is unfair. But sometimes, with a bit of luck, this works in your favour.

Peter Mayle

#13. I have a very set routine. I work six days a week, but only half days. I work from 9 in the morning till 1 in the afternoon, without any interruptions, a fair slug.

Peter Mayle

#14. The funny thing in France is that writers are not allowed to retire, because the French government say you are still earning money from books you wrote 20 years ago.

Peter Mayle

#15. I was lucky enough to spend some of my school days in Barbados, where my father was working, and this gave me a taste for hot weather.

Peter Mayle

#16. Good manners make any man a pleasure to be with. Ask any woman.

Peter Mayle

#17. La Closerie, in Ansouis.

Peter Mayle

#18. Best advice I've ever received: Finish.

Peter Mayle

#19. The English kill their meat twice: once when they slaughter it and once when they cook it.

Peter Mayle

#20. Nowadays, if you have a journey, albeit a simple one, you consider yourself lucky if nothing happens.

Peter Mayle

#21. I called Monsieur Menicucci, and he asked anxiously about my pipes. I told him they were holding up well. "That pleases me," he said, "because it is minus five degrees, the roads are perilous, and I am fifty-eight years old. I am staying at home." He paused, then added, "I shall play the clarinet.

Peter Mayle

#22. Why not make a daily pleasure out a daily necessity.

Peter Mayle

#23. It's very nice to meet the people who read my books.

Peter Mayle

#24. Oh, that,' he said. 'Poncet is grooming his ass.

Peter Mayle

#25. A connoisseur of woe needs fresh worries from time to time, or he will become complacent.

Peter Mayle

#26. I don't have a boss. Well, I have a boss: the public. If the public doesn't buy my books, I would be out of a job.

Peter Mayle

#27. I have a robust sense of humour which helps me deal with problems.

Peter Mayle

#28. It was exciting at first... Then it became routine. I guess everything does, even if it's dangerous.

Peter Mayle

#29. The people of Provence greeted spring with uncharacteristic briskness, as if nature had given everyone an injection of sap.

Peter Mayle

#30. No matter what their background, the southern French are fascinated by food.

Peter Mayle

#31. I am a great believer in people taking control of their own lives.

Peter Mayle

#32. I left school at 16 and skipped university to work, initially as a waiter. I think I missed out on what would have been great years.

Peter Mayle

#33. The great thing about having money is that you can actually just get on with your life and not have to think about paying the bills or crouch over 'The Wall Street Journal' or the 'Financial Times' and look at the stock figures and things like that. That bores me rigid.

Peter Mayle

#34. In the south of France the phones cut in and out, the electricity isn't particularly reliable. I think many people would get very irritated with that life.

Peter Mayle

#35. Look at those vines,' he said. 'Nature is wearing her prettiest clothes.'
The effect of this unexpectedly poetic observation was slight spoiled when Massot cleared his throat nosily and spat, but he was right;

Peter Mayle

#36. Very little happens in my books.

Peter Mayle

#37. Depending on the inflection, ah bon can express shock, disbelief, indifference, irritation, or joy - a remarkable achievment for two short words.

Peter Mayle

#38. There is nothing like a comfortable adventure to put people in a good humor ...

Peter Mayle

#39. There is nothing I like better at the end of a hot summer's day than taking a short walk around the garden. You can smell the heat coming up from the earth to meet the cooler night air.

Peter Mayle