Make treating yourself a priority and always remember your life is happening now. Don't put off all your dreams and pleasures to another day. In any balanced personal definition of success there has to be a powerful element of living life in the present.

Quality of life is very important in France. I have many friends who turned down promotions and more money because it would affect their quality of life as a couple or a mother.

Scientifically, it has been proven that after three bites, your palate has been satisfied. It doesn't matter what you eat. So if you eat one boule of ice cream, that's all you need. You don't have to eat pint after pint after pint.

Since the pleasure of most foods is in the first few bites, eat one thing on your plate at a time, at least at the start of the meal when you can concentrate and enjoy the full flavors.

The word that I constantly hear out of women is 'fear.' It's almost like a background melody. Women have excellent degrees and experience, but we are afraid we aren't good enough because we have such high expectations.

Women are smarter by basic instinct and by what we have to do to multitask at home and at work. My mother did that 50 years ago, but it wasn't called multitasking or stress back then. She had a job, two kids and the meals to make with no cook or maid. My father would come home every day and expect lunch. He was a nice guy, but he was clueless!

Just as established products and brands need updating to stay alive and vibrant, you periodically need to refresh or reinvent yourself.

Intelligence, knowledge or experience are important and might get you a job, but strong communication skills are what will get you promoted.

French women don't have too many clothes - a few good pieces that last for a while and are classic and timeless.

I can never leave a bookstore without buying a book. I read four or five at a time.

I cannot live without flowers everywhere. I grew up having a big garden, the size of a city block, in Rombas.

I find it so unattractive when women wear sneakers with their business suits. I wear a nice pair of loafers or low-heeled pumps, and that's that.

I've never been ambitious.

In America, you look at food as bad and guilty. In France, we love food and we enjoy food; food is pleasure.

In the U.S., too many yogurts are filled with corn syrup, preservatives, artificial this and that. To me, this is poison.

My friends say everything I touch turns to gold. I'll say, 'I've been very lucky.'

Of course there are fat French women. There are fat people everywhere.

Once you have to start counting calories, it takes away from the joy of eating.

People are unhappy when they are on diets, because it's 'don't do this, don't do that, do this, do that.'

Taking care of your mental and physical health is just as important as any career move or responsibility.