Kate Lebo > Quotes

“Never promise to make pie and fail to deliver on that promise.”
― Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie

“Only those who will love longer than they expected to can truly love pecan pie, which doesn't explain its status as death rows most requested last dessert, or why chopped pecans, corn syrup, directions from the Karo bottle's cherry-red side are what mercy taste like to some. But there you have it.”
― Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie

“The difference between superlative pie and a wish for cake is crust. Understand that pie is a generous but self-centered substance. It likes attention, not affection. Do not hug your crust. Do not rub its back or five its high. Don't fuss with refrigerators every step oft he way. Keep the water and butter cold, and remember what a wise baker once said: The goal is pie.”
― Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie

“Bad bananas are like push-up bras--a promise of tenderness can deliver tasteless mush, and we're not supposed to complain.”
― Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie

“If you love peanut butter pie, you are either Dolly Parton or someone who loves her.”
― Kate Lebo, A Commonplace Book of Pie

“Disability can create sensibility. My disability is invisible, my limitations are aesthetic. They make art and they make mistakes, reminding me constantly that the way I sense and experience the world is different. At a slight angle, as Forster said of Cavafy. Which is a reminder that difference isn't unique to me. That's why listening creates a conversation. That's how reading creates a poem. It's terrifying to lose your senses. Then, sometimes, it's a pleasure.”
― Kate Lebo, The Best American Essays 2015: Daring Contemporary Writing on Life and Identity―Featuring David Sedaris, Zadie Smith, and Rebecca Solnit

“shared understanding between healer and patient that the human body ends not at our skins but extends into nature; that what is in nature is also in us. It is not so much a list of prescriptions as a way of seeing and making sense of how a world that harms our bodies can also heal them.”
― Kate Lebo, The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly

“During my latest autoimmune flare-up—a feeling of pressurized emptiness, like a bubble is blowing itself up in my stomach, then pain, like my guts are ripping open—I exile aronia smoothies and all other fruits that can’t be peeled and seeded. Gluten, whole grains, dairy, they all have to go. I do this to calm my system but also to exhibit health-seeking behavior. So my doctors will believe in me. So my family will be patient with me. So I can say to myself I did everything I could. All I can do... My asceticism has been rewarded with stasis, not healing.”
― Kate Lebo, The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly