"Maya Angelou gives aspiring poets and cooks the same advice: 'Plan every movement. Give yourself
a lot of time and always forgive yourself.' This year, the literary luminary will receive the Presidential
Medal of Freedom for filling libraries with weighty poetry and prose, but her latest project is considerably
lighter. In 'Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart' ($30, Random House), she shares her healthy,
homespun dishes.
Why did you decide to start writing cookbooks?
Oh, I'm a cook! I'm a serious cook. A few days ago, someone interviewing me said, 'So, you're a chef?' and I said,
'No, I'm not a chef. A chef is someone who cooks to be compensated.' I cook to be compensated by the smiles of family
and the laughs of my friends.
What do meals mean to you?
In a wonderful way, mealtime is almost the most intimate time that people have together.
Of course, when one is making love with someone one loves, with a beloved, that's the most intimate.
But the next most intimate time is when a person has gone shopping for the freshest produce, the finest-looking
chicken or beef or fish, and came home to prepare it in the best possible way, and then presented it beautifully
and sat down to eat it with a beloved — that is extremely intimate.
Has the idea of dinnertime changed in this country?
I think we dropped the ball somewhere. We've raised a generation of young folks who have their major meals at
counters. At McDonald's, Burger King and even at the counters in their own homes. We're losing something so
important, and it will change America. It will change who we are to ourselves and to each other and to the world."
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