There's a wonderful old Italian joke about a poor man who goes to church every day and prays before the statue of a great saint, begging, "Dear saintplease, please, please... give me the grace to win the lottery." This lament goes on for months. Finally the exasperated statue comes to life, looks down at the begging man and says in weary disgust, "My sonplease, please, please... buy a ticket. - Elizabeth Gilbert Like the old Italian saying goes, 'It ain't rocket surgery.' - Nadia Giosia I took a straight picture that made me look like a thirty-year-old Italian who'd kill anybody who said something against his mother. - Jack Kerouac There are lots of wonderful old Italian actors. You don't need to take an Egyptian to play an Italian actor. - Omar Sharif

My grandma used to plant tomato seedlings in tin cans from tomato sauce & puree & crushed tomatoes she got from the Italian restaurant by her house, but she always soaked the labels off first. I don't want them to be anxious about the future, she said. It's not healthy. - Brian Andreas I wrote a huge number of letters that spring: one a week to Naoko, several to Reiko, and several more to Midori. I wrote letters in the lecture hall, I wrote letters at my desk at home with Seagull on my lap, I wrote letters at empty tables during my breaks at the Italian restaurant. It was as if I were writing letters to hold together the pieces of my crumbling life. - Haruki Murakami There wasn't much around. After the shows, we would go to an Italian restaurant that a friend of ours owned and so I didn't get a chance to see much. Actually, that holds true of most places I've been. - Connie Francis I am officially Jewish, but I'm Jewish in the same way the Olive Gard...

Life is too short, and I'm Italian. I'd much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0. - Sophia Bush Well, I'm Italian, but my family isn't stereotypical. I mean, I only have one sister and we don't yell or throw pasta at each other. My mother doesn't even have a secret spaghetti sauce recipe. - Jennifer Esposito He tugged my zipper down like he was unveiling a gift, spreading my pants open. "Yeah. There it is. You have a nice fat dick. I would have never guessed it." "I'm Italian," I said inanely. - L B Gregg