20+ Best Anthony Bourdain Quotes

Discover the best Anthony Bourdain quotes about travel, food, and life below!

Anthony Bourdain was a renowned chef, author, and television personality known for his love of travel and exploration of different cultures through food. He had a way with words and expressed his views on travel in various memorable quotes.

These quotes capture Anthony Bourdain’s passion for exploration, the transformative power of travel, and his appreciation for immersing oneself in local culture, primarily through food. His insights inspire many travelers to embrace adventure and open-mindedness while on their journeys.

Keep reading to discover the top Anthony Bourdain quotes.

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In This Post

Best Anthony Bourdain Quotes about Travel

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you.”

“The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body.”

“If I’m an advocate for anything, it’s to move. As far as you can, as much as you can. Across the ocean, or simply across the river. The extent to which you can walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food, it’s a plus for everybody.”

“It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to learn.”

“Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico, and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonald’s? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head?”

“I’m a big believer in winging it. I’m a big believer that you’re never going to find a perfect city travel experience or the perfect meal without a constant willingness to experience a bad one. Letting the happy accident happen is what a lot of vacation itineraries miss, I think, and I’m always trying to push people to allow those things to happen rather than stick to some rigid itinerary.”

“If you’re 22, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel—as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them—wherever you go.”

“Travel isn’t about architecture, monuments, and sights; it’s about people and the stuff they’ve made and the stuff they do.”

“It’s an irritating reality that many places and events defy description. Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu, for instance, seem to demand silence, like a love affair you can never talk about. For a while after, you fumble for words, trying vainly to assemble a private narrative, an explanation, a comfortable way to frame where you’ve been and what happened. In the end, you’re just happy you were there – with your eyes open – and lived to see it.”

“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”

Best Anthony Bourdain Quotes about Food

“You learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together.”

“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”

“You have to be a romantic to invest yourself, your money, and your time in cheese.”

“Context and memory play powerful roles in all the truly great meals in one’s life.”

“Food is everything we are. It’s an extension of nationalist feeling, ethnic feeling, your personal history, your province, your region, your tribe, your grandma. It’s inseparable from those from the get-go.”

“Meals make the society, hold the fabric together in lots of ways that were charming and interesting and intoxicating to me. The perfect meal, or the best meals, occur in a context that frequently has very little to do with the food itself.”

Best Anthony Bourdain Quotes about Life

“Your body is not a temple, it’s an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”

“I don’t have to agree with you to like you or respect you.”

“I’m not afraid to look like an idiot.”

“Without experimentation, a willingness to ask questions and try new things, we shall surely become static, repetitive, and moribund.”

“Skills can be taught. Character you either have or you don’t have.”

“Life is complicated. It’s filled with nuance. It’s unsatisfying… If I believe in anything, it is doubt. The root cause of all life’s problems is looking for a simple fucking answer.”

“If you’re 22 years old, I want you to be with someone who makes you feel like the young man you are, not someone who makes you feel like the old man you’re going to be.”