Part of my job as a food writer is to describe food. So my work on 'Top Chef ' I feel is an extension of that. When we give a criticism to the contestant we want to make sure we tell them why it's not working and why it would work if they did it a different way.

I wouldn't compare myself to any past Idol contestant because I don't feel like I am like any of them. Maybe stories are cool but my story is different from most people's story. I don't like to compare myself to other people I like to just be me.

I don't care whether people like me or dislike me. I'm not on earth to win a popularity contest. I'm here to be the best human being I possibly can be.

For Forms of Government let fools contest whatever is best administered is best.

I'm not out here to win a beauty contest.

Surely these women won't lose any more of their beauty and charm by putting a ballot in a ballot box once a year than they are likely to lose standing in foundries or laundries all year round. There is no harder contest than the contest for bread let me tell you that.

Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off the belief it inspires is what counts.

And often it would be a woman who was in her 70s or 80s who would win the beauty contest because bound feet never age.

It used to happen in villages and towns in China that they would have - I guess you'd call them beauty contests - where all of the women of a particular village or town would be seated behind these screens or curtains with only their feet showing.

I thought it might be a good move to get into a beauty contest so I tried for Miss Pennsylvania and won. I think that helped me get noticed at least by the people of Pennsylvania.

A whopping 89 percent of buyers start their home search online. How your house looks online is the modern equivalent of 'curb appeal.' Rent a wide-angle lens and good lighting get rid of your clutter and post at least eight great photos to win the beauty contest.

There are no contests in the Art of Peace. A true warrior is invincible because he or she contests with nothing. Defeat means to defeat the mind of contention that we harbor within.

I liked the way they treated the first second and third place finishers equally. It was an amazing year. I only entered two song contests this year I won one and placed second in the other. And I entered each of them a day or two before the deadline.

The divine right of husbands like the divine right of kings may it is hoped in this enlightened age be contested without danger.