My American Dream Quotes

“My mother is an extraordinary anchor for me. In this fast-paced and hectic new world, so many people are liberating themselves from their families, putting their loved ones in old people’s homes. This is tragic, to me. Parents and grandparents are a precious commodity. You must not waste them. Make sure your children have time with them. They, too, can gain strength from them.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

“You need to have a kind of home port where you put down anchor when the hurricane comes; you must stay connected to your roots. That helps you to have humility and an understanding of your true self.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

“I feel that today the importance of grandparents’ role within the family is not fully appreciated; children do not usually have the opportunity to be enriched by close proximity to and strong relationships with their grandparents. I know how important those relationships were in my life, and how a lot of the basic understanding I have of life and its values is rooted in my relationship with my grandparents.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

“I took some lifelong lessons away from my days of playing chess. The game is very analytical, and you must change your analysis with every single move. I realized that the same lesson applies to life, too—if your course changes a little bit, your strategy must change along with it.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

“But no one came. My father was safe, and his family was together in a free land. We’d left virtually everything we had behind—our home, furniture, clothes, and possessions. Our lifelong friends, too. We’d left behind the fields we’d lovingly tilled, the fig and cherry trees that I cherished, and the farm animals that were once so important to us. My father had nothing to show for the business that he’d worked so hard to establish and grow.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food

“Being near the sea liberates me from negativity and tension and enlightens me when I am feeling lost or confused. I feel a certain freedom when I am close to the water.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream

“I took some lifelong lessons away from my days of playing chess. The game is very analytical, and you must change your analysis with every single move. I realized that the same lesson applies to life, too--if your course changes a little bit, your strategy must change along with it.”
― Lidia Matticchio Bastianich, My American Dream