When I was growing up in Mississippi - it was good Southern food... but I also grew up with a Greek family when other kids were eating fried okra we were eating steamed artichokes. So I think it played a big part in my healthy cooking.

When I was a kid I took 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' very seriously. It was a world to me in the same way that the Greek myths would have been had I read them. You know Marcia is Athena and Mr. Brady is Zeus.

It did remind me of something out of Greek mythology - the richest king who gets everything he wants but ultimately his family has a curse on it from the Gods.

At times of distress we all like to recall the advice of fathers and mothers. The best advice my father gave me was to keep faith and deep confidence in the potential of the Greek people nurture the belief that they can do things.

You are about to have your first experience with a Greek lunch. I will kill you if you pretend to like it.

Right now I'd love to be sitting on a Greek island somewhere because of being Greek American eating great octopus salad and some fantastic lamb. Or sipping a little ouzo. I think the Mediterranean diet is one of the healthiest... Lots of nuts vegetables fruits fresh fish lean meats yogurt.

The Greeks said grandly in their tragic phrase 'Let no one be called happy till his death' to which I would add 'Let no one till his death be called unhappy.'

That's always a cool thing to be the voice of what the eyes are seeing. It gives you the role of the Greek chorus and that's always fun to do.

What I wish I had is that I wish I was a little more Greek in that I wish I could lose my North American driven attitude and that I could be a little bit more poetic and laissez faire.

All that we call ideal in Greek or any other art because to us it is false and visionary was to the makers of it true and existent.