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.

Art is the signature of civilizations.

Opera is an extremely disciplined art form, and every excess a singer indulges in has a direct effect on the voice.

Attachment to spiritual things is... just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else.

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

There is no short cut to a place worth going.

I lived through the garbage. I might as well dine on the caviar.