Nigella Lawson quotes

Nigella Lawson is an English journalist, food writer, and television chef celebrated for her approachable cookbooks and TV shows. Her warm, engaging style has made her a household name in culinary media. She continues to inspire people around the world to enjoy cooking and good food. Here are 57 of her quotes:

I was shy as a child. Now I'm not really shy any more, unless I'm with shy people. I find it contagious and I don't know what to say. But I don't think shyness is something one should feel apologetic about.

Nigella Lawson

I don't wear anything in bed. But I'm not ready for a nude scene quite yet.

Nigella Lawson

It's true that I wouldn't have written the first book had my sister and mother been alive. It was my way of continuing our conversation. It's also this Jewish thing of naming and remembering people, and I think there is a sense of keeping that side of life going.

Nigella Lawson

I lurch from chaos to chaos. I can't find my driving licence and my clothes are everywhere – cooking is the neatest thing I do.

Nigella Lawson

I think sometimes that people assume because I'm on television I'm an expert, but I think the whole point of what I do is that I'm not and I don't have any training. My approach isn't about a fancy ingredient or style. I cook what I love to eat.

Nigella Lawson

At some stages of your life you will deal with things and at others you are overwhelmed with misery and anxiety.

Nigella Lawson

Cooking is actually quite aggressive and controlling and sometimes, yes, there is an element of force-feeding going on.

Nigella Lawson

But if you know that something has been really vicious, you don't read it, you don't let it into your head. What's damaging is when sentences go through your head and you burn with the injustice of it.

Nigella Lawson

I can understand why those primitive desert people think a camera steals their soul. It is unnatural to see yourself from the outside.

Nigella Lawson

The thing I liked about writing about food when I started it was that I felt I was writing about food in a different way. Not like a food writer.

Nigella Lawson

Some people did take the domestic goddess title literally rather than ironically. It was about the pleasures of feeling like one rather than actually being one.

Nigella Lawson

I am always surprised when people read double entendres into my innocuous babble.

Nigella Lawson

But I do think that women who spend all their lives on a diet probably have a miserable sex life: if your body is the enemy, how can you relax and take pleasure? Everything is about control, rather than relaxing, about holding everything in.

Nigella Lawson

While I am sure there are a number of women who secretly wonder whether they are lesbian, most simply have, somewhere, a fantasy about having sex, in a non-defining, non-exclusive way, with other women.

Nigella Lawson

I took a fortnight off. But I'm not a great believer in breaks. I don't want to be rattling around inside my own head. I did feel I was spiralling into a Kathy Burke character and tried going out, but I prefer it here. Filming keeps me busy. It absorbs me.

Nigella Lawson

My sister lives in New York and she was struck by how class-ridden the reviews were. Everyone had to mention that I'm posh. British people are obsessed by that. I said to John, 'I'm not posh.' Is my voice posh?

Nigella Lawson

I don't believe you can ever really cook unless you love eating.

Nigella Lawson

I think cooking should be about fun and family. I'm not a trained chef. I don't pretend to be and I think part of my appeal is that my approach to cooking is really relaxed and not rigid. There are no rules in my kitchen.

Nigella Lawson

It's not meant to be flirtatious. Listen, I don't have a presenting style, I'm just me. I don't have the talent to adopt a different persona. It's intimate, not flirtatious.

Nigella Lawson

It wasn't really a chat show, it was a magazine show. I looked at it as a summer job. As long as no one makes me interview a celeb again, I'll be happy. It wasn't what I signed up for but, of course, nowadays everyone likes celebs. I'm pretty bored of them, though. I wasn't interested and couldn't be bothered to pretend I was.

Nigella Lawson

I am greedy. I eat under stress. When you are eating, the rest of the world is tuned out. And when you tune back in you feel guilty about having been greedy and the rest of the world is still there, so you have to carry on eating!

Nigella Lawson

...obesity isn't caused by those who adore food. People tend not to put on weight through eating meals. I'd say it's people who eat non-stop.

Nigella Lawson