BLENDING Magazine Fall-Winter 2015/16

To the present writer a careful study of the facts now available seems to leave no doubt that civilization was born at the southeast corner of the Mediterranean.

JAMES HENRY BREASTED The intercourse between the Mediterranean and the North or between the Atlantic and Central Europe was never purely economic or political; it also meant the exchange of knowledge and ideas and the influence of social institutions and artistic and literary forms.

CHRISTOPHER DAWSON In Morocco, it's possible to see the Atlantic and the Mediterranean at the same time.

TAHAR BEN JELLOUN The Mediterranean is always just white, white, white.

CY TWOMBLY The Mediterranean is in my DNA. I'm fine inland for about a week, but then I yearn for a limitless view of the sea, for the colours and smells of the Italian and French Riviera.

ALAIN DUCASSE I had better cellular coverage on a ship in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea than I have in many parts of Silicon Valley.

ROGER MCNAMEE To eat figs off the tree in the very early morning, when they have been barely touched by the sun, is one of the exquisite pleasures of the Mediterranean.

ELIZABETH DAVID, An Omelette and a Glass of Wine I don’t open my eyes until the sounds of beating rain disappear and I can feel the warmth of the Mediterranean sun on my face.

BETH REVIS, The Body Electric Logic is a mere iceberg in the Mediterranean of wisdom.

RAHEEL FAROOQ One cannot analyse the character of European gardens without looking beyond the Mediterranean.

This is because horticulture, palace life and city-building developed in the Fertile Crescent before spreading, via Crete, Greece, Egypt and Italy to the forests of Europe.

TOM TURNER