If the student could give up her work on my advice, she had better give it up without it. One does not study for a goal. The goal is a mere accident.

Acquiring a repertoire in these days, when the vocal literature is so immense, so overwhelming, that the student with sense will devote all his energies to work and not imagine himself a martyr to art.

The student who deceives himself into thinking that he is giving his life like an ascetic in the spirit of sacrifice for art, is the victim of a deplorable species of egotism.

Vocal study before age 20 is likely to be injurious, though some survive it in the hands of very careful and understanding teachers.

Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.

A student will send me an urgent appeal to hear her, saying she is poor and wants my advice as to whether it is worth while to continue her studies. I invariably refuse such requests.

French is, in many ways, more difficult for an English-speaking person to sing. It is so full of complex and trying vowels. It requires the utmost subtlety.