Just to eat is a gift.

Everywhere the sky is blue. There are a multitude of cuisines and dishes. I think of them as the languages and dialects of food.

When I was a teenager, my idol was the Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff. He's the only person I've ever asked for an autograph.

I don't dream at night; life has given me the stuff I need to be able to dream during the day. I'm very lucky.

Risk is to do something that 99 percent of the time would be a failure.

I have a driver's licence, but the truth is that I hardly ever drive. I prefer to get around by taxi.

Innovation, being avant garde, is always polemic.

I can't live without activity; I can't be sedentary.

I am not a multimillionaire. I don't own a yacht or a Ferrari. I live in a 60-square- metre flat. My needs are simple.

For me to go to a restaurant and eat something that is not only good, but totally new, is a double thrill. Double the enjoyment.

I don't worry about the things I can't change.

I don't read books regularly, because I'm always writing them. I've written 30 books, thousands of pages.

Friends are really important, especially when you've had the successes that I've had. I've gone really far in my career, so they're the ones that keep you humble, keep your feet on the ground.

I wanted to take nouvelle cuisine further, to the point where we were breaking down the essence of taste and sensation, reconfiguring food as a series of really intense hits on the tongue.

Chefs have only been able to work in restaurants, high-end cuisine. Why? Why haven't they been able to find other scenarios? For those chefs who want to do avant-garde cuisine, should they be finding their income in a restaurant?

Why not mix this and that? If soy goes well with fish, how come no one does beef carpaccio with soy? Why do we have such a taste and not another? It's all about culture. There is something, however, that I really don't like: bell peppers.

It's very hard to be an innovator at the highest level in any discipline. For some chefs it's merely about combining ingredients, but that's something you can do with your eyes closed.

There are many cultural prejudices. For instance, even though fresh fish is a regional staple, Catalans don't like sashimi.

Ferran Adria making hamburgers... some thought it was crazy. But getting them perfect was a challenge. Plus I'm fascinated by all aspects of food.

In a city, it's very hard to do a restaurant, an avant-garde-cuisine restaurant, where each year you need to change the whole menu.

If a child plays sport early in childhood, and doesn't give it up, he will play sport for the rest of his life. And if children have a connection with, and are involved in the preparation of, the food they eat, then it will be normal for them to cook these kind of meals, and they will go on cooking them for the rest of their lives.

If I were a customer, and I was given a dish with peppers, I would hate it. I also don't like blood sausage.

We never have business meals at El Bulli. If it's about business, you're probably not paying much attention to the food.

I believe that if you eat well, you work even better.

I cook more theoretically than I do practically. My job is creative, and in the kitchen, the biggest part of my creativity is theoretical.

I never even dreamed of being a chef, and that's fundamental.

When we're ill, one of the last things we have that we can enjoy is food.

I had a very normal childhood, and my mother cooked very normal food.