American - Journalist | December 7, 1948 -
I always wanted to write a book about a common food that becomes a commercial commodity and therefore becomes economically important and therefore becomes politically important and culturally important. That whole process is very interesting to me. And salt seemed to me the best example of that, partly because it's universal.
Mark Kurlansky
FoodBestMeBookInterestingSalt
There's a lot about the early history of salt that isn't known, including who first used it and when or how it was discovered that it preserved food. We were sort of handed, in history, this world where everyone knew about salt. And it's not clear exactly how that developed.
HistoryFoodWorldEarlySaltFirst
Things that become important to economies become ritualized and become deified. Because I'm Jewish, I always thought it was interesting that in Judaism, salt seals a bargain, particularly the covenant with God. Some people, when they bless bread, they dip it in salt. Same thing exists in Islam.
GodPeopleThoughtInterestingSalt
I was a theatre major and started off as a playwright.
TheatreStartedOffPlaywrightMajor
I don't do much research on the Internet.
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I sometimes think there is nothing really to be said about a novel but 'read the book.' I have a jaundiced view of literary critics.
BookThinkViewSaidSometimesRead
How you solve your problems are quite different. In non-fiction, you can always go back to the research, whereas in fiction, you have to go back to yourself - which is a little bit scary.
YourselfResearchProblemsYouBack
Europeans are far more anti-war than Americans. They've had more wars, and they really just don't believe in it any more. But Americans do.
BelieveMoreJustFarThanReally
I grew up in a neighbourhood where there was a lot of fighting. It's what boys did during school, during recess, after school. And I was a fairly large kid. So everyone wanted to see if they could take me on.
SchoolMeFightingKidEveryoneSee
Religion is a big problem in Israel and the Arab world, but again, the problem isn't religion but political leaders who want to use the religion.
ReligionWorldPoliticalProblemBig
The inventors we remember didn't invent anything. They're the people who took somebody else's invention and made it commercially viable.
PeopleRememberInventionAnything
I started writing 'Cod' at a time when people were first beginning to take an interest in the problem of fisheries because the Grand Banks had closed.
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