Sirio Maccioni quotes:

Paris is great. I stay at the Ritz Paris - I'm good friends with the Director, Frank Klein, and the owner. I lived there 3 years; I was the only foreigner working at Maxim's. They only took French, which was a mistake.

I like simple food, seasoned with just salt, pepper, oil and vinegar. Complicated food and complicated lives are never good.

Le Cirque is strictly New York people. New York people don't eat at home; New York people go out.

We are thrilled with the response we are getting to Le Cirque at The Leela Palace New Delhi. Our goal is to bring a luxury dining experience consistent with international standards of excellence to the expanding and discerning clientele in India.

I started to work at the Colony in March 1958. I remember my first day because the telephone started to ring, and it was Sinatra, three for lunch, his usual table; Onassis, two for lunch, usual table; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Leland Hayward, Truman Capote, all wanting their usual tables.

My philosophy is that one must always give a lady what she wants. That never goes out of style.

My wife, she is so good. She was a famous singer - had a show in Carnegie Hall, did a big city tour for RCA. Then she made the mistake of marrying me. The next year, another tour, but the third year, she had Mario and said, 'Either I'm a mother or a singer.'

No one could touch the home cooking of an Italian woman. French women, they are very intelligent, very sexy - but they don't like to cook.

It didn't get any more glamorous than Havana, Cuba, in the 1950s. I used to go there when I was a waiter on a cruise ship.

I try to be happy, but I'm never happy. I don't believe in happiness. I was happy yesterday, but today and tomorrow is a different story.

The blueberry-soy weight-loss smoothies my son makes for me taste terrible, but my doctor says they're good for me.

I get along with everybody because I don't believe anybody.

I really hate to get old. I don't talk about it much. And sometimes at night I wake up and I have nightmares that I know how old I am.