Our most intimate contact with civilizations long since dust has been through the art which has survived them.

Socially I never was an outsider. I have never thought of the conflict element before frankly, but perhaps it was wanting to belong, and at the same time wanting to retain one's own personality.

If an American audience is given a serious musical theater piece that is well produced, dramatically gripping and wonderfully acted, they'll respond to it.

It seems to me opera is just as relevant as an expressive art as anything else.

I was encouraged by my mother and, to a lesser extent, by my father.

I think anything that is expressed directly and as honestly as possible will last.

I find it enormously valuable to be sure that that the pacing is what I think it is and that the scenes have the shape I think they have musically and dramatically.