There are an awful lot of skinny people in the cemetery.

It seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not, more important now was for me to love them

I can't be happy every day but I can be cheerful.

Opera is music AND drama. I'm prepared to sacrifice the beautiful note for the meaningful sound any time... I can make a pretty tone as well as anyone, but there are times when the drama of a scene demands the opposite of a pretty sound.

Just sing it. Don't prove you can sing it. I know you can, you know you can. So just do it, because if you try to prove it, you'll lose.

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.

I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.