Top 50 Paula Deen Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Change doesn’t happen overnight. It starts with the desire, then one small step in the right direction.”

— Paula Deen

2. “Everyday you wake up on the right side of the dirt is a good one.”

— Paula Deen

3. “If you have a dream, FOLLOW IT.”

— Paula Deen

4. “Love is like smiling, it never fades and is contagious.”

— Paula Deen

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5. “I was determined to share my positive approach and not let diabetes stand in the way of enjoying my life.”

— Paula Deen

6. “You never know who you will meet along life’s journey. You have to be open to risks, but calculated risks, open to winning.”

— Paula Deen

7. “Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener.”

— Paula Deen

8. “Don’t ever give up. You can’t let discouragement get you down. You can always find negative people that will try to discourage you from your goals. You can’t be discouraged, and you can’t let the word “no” stop you.”

— Paula Deen

9. “There’s nothing better than being able to give your children wings so they can soar and fly in the direction they want to go in.”

— Paula Deen

10. “I believe that everyone should be treated equal. That’s the way I was raised, and that’s the way I live my life.”

— Paula Deen

11. “We are our brothers keeper. Its going to be up to all of us.”

— Paula Deen

12. “I think no matter what the occasion may be, you can never go wrong by showing up at the dinner table with a hot plate of fried chicken.”

— Paula Deen

13. “You know, nobody can ever cook as good as your mama.”

— Paula Deen

14. “I am guilty of buying way too many gadgets – way too many! And though I try to keep things nice and orderly, sometimes I get distracted and stick saucepans where the stockpots should go.”

— Paula Deen

15. “I’ll keep peace at all cost, even if I choke to death on my tongue.”

— Paula Deen

16. “I am proud to be a Southerner.”

— Paula Deen

17. “I am proof that the American dream still exists.”

— Paula Deen

18. “I’ve got two vices: cigarettes and taters.”

— Paula Deen

19. “I will never use a substitute for butter. Margarine is one molecule away from eating plastic.”

— Paula Deen

20. “I don’t want to spend my life not having good food going into my pie hole. That hole was made for pies.”

— Paula Deen

21. “I am living proof that the American dream still exists. It is still alive and well. There is only one trick, you have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and work very, very hard.”

— Paula Deen

22. “Talking about money is garish. It’s tacky.”

— Paula Deen

23. “I don’t care what the haters and naysayers say. If they make jokes about me, I’ll laugh because they’ll probably be funny.”

— Paula Deen

24. “A balanced diet is a cookie in both hands.”

— Paula Deen

25. “In my house, the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Game have always been a grand tradition for ringing in the New Year. To serve as Grand Marshal is a dream come true and I look forward to sharing the celebration with all of the fans and viewers worldwide.”

— Paula Deen

26. “In order to have good fried chicken, you should wash and season the bird the morning you’re preparing it for dinner. Don’t wait and do it right before you start cooking. Throw it in the refrigerator, seasoned, that morning, and give it a chance to soak up all the salt and pepper and goodness.”

— Paula Deen

27. “Cooking has always brought me a happiness that I didn’t think was available. I just fire up the stove, and things start to fade away.”

— Paula Deen

28. “I am so blessed. I’ve been way over-blessed. At 64 years old, I look forward to going to bed every night so I can wake up in the morning and see what blessing is going to come my way that day. Because you never, ever know what God’s got in store for you.”

— Paula Deen

29. “I’m more spiritual than I am religious. I don’t go to church; I go to the beach.”

— Paula Deen

30. “I love Hershey’s chocolate. I feel the same about chocolate as I do about wine. Connoisseurs like dark chocolate and they like nasty wine that doesn’t taste good to me. I don’t get it!”

— Paula Deen

31. “I found that when I went from Albany to Savannah, that I needed to put that white rice away, and I needed to turn that into Savannah red rice because they were big into that sausage, tomato-y, bell pepper-y rice mixture.”

— Paula Deen

32. “I’m making little changes in my life to take care of myself, like putting in a mile or two on my treadmill every day.”

— Paula Deen

33. “You know, not everybody can afford to pay $58 for prime rib or $650 for a bottle of wine. My friends and I cook for regular families who worry about feeding their kids and paying the bills.”

— Paula Deen

34. “The thought of eating rabbit and squirrels doesn’t appeal to me. And that was on our table quite often as a kid. In your uppity restaurants, they serve a lot of rabbit. But I just can’t help but think of Peter. And deer, I can’t go there, because of Bambi.”

— Paula Deen

35. “You can have diabetes and have a piece of cake. You cannot have diabetes and eat a whole cake.”

— Paula Deen

36. “Stone-ground grits are wonderful, but because they take so long to cook, I usually go with quick cooking grits – which I also love. But I never make the instant kind – some things a Southerner just won’t do!”

— Paula Deen

37. “If you’ve got a good idea and you’re willing to do whatever it takes to pursue it, keep your head up and eyes open because you don’t know when opportunity will come knocking.”

— Paula Deen

38. “I pay people very, very well – probably more than I have to. But that costs me less money in the long run because I’m not having to constantly train somebody. I pay them enough that they don’t go seeking a higher scale at the next restaurant.”

— Paula Deen

39. “There was one thing my daddy wouldn’t tolerate in any shape, form or fashion, and that was being unkind or rude to somebody. That was just very important to my folks. And as it turns out, that was a legacy that he left me that money can’t buy, is how to be able to treat people.”

— Paula Deen

40. “When it’s said and done, the one thing I want to leave on this earth is hope. I have felt hopelessness, and it’s a terrible feeling. Hopelessness will destroy you. I want to bring hope to other people.”

— Paula Deen

41. “Down South, even our vegetables have some pig hidden somewhere in it. A vegetable isn’t a vegetable without a little ham hock.”

— Paula Deen

42. “I have a lot of secret uses for sour cream, which is the magic ingredient in my mac and cheese. It’s an old-timey, Southern version, and the sour cream makes it that much creamier. Oh, it’s so good!”

— Paula Deen

43. “You know, I understand that a lot of people, especially up north, put fruits and nuts in their stuffing, which is good, but for myself personally, I love an old-timey savory dressing.”

— Paula Deen

44. “The first thing I did was give up sweet tea because I drank so much. I’d start drinking at lunchtime and wouldn’t set it down until I went to bed. When you calculate how much empty calories and how much sugar I was consuming, it was staggering. So I haven’t had a glass of sweet tea in three years.”

— Paula Deen

45. “You don’t want to make a steady diet of just lettuce. You don’t want to make a steady diet of fried chicken.”

— Paula Deen

46. “It’s amazing how good getting up and moving makes you feel.”

— Paula Deen

47. “On my show I share all these yummy, fattening recipes, but I tell people, in moderation, in moderation. You can have that little piece of pie.”

— Paula Deen

48. “Southerners have never been afraid of seasoning. It’s kind of the other way around; our seasoning is afraid of us.”

— Paula Deen

49. “Growing up, I had a very busy social life. It wasn’t until I was a sophomore in high school that I asked Mama if I could come into the kitchen and have her teach me how to cook something.”

— Paula Deen

50. “I can’t, myself determine what offends another person.”

— Paula Deen