I feel most spiritual when I am listening to a soprano voice soaring to the top of its range at the most dramatic point of an aria. It feels like a geyser shooting up from the center of the earth and reaching for the stars.

Nothing matters as long as you are kind and authentic. If you are, then you did your best, and that is all you can do.

Put positive energy out into the world. If everybody did that, we would be in harmony.

I never know what will happen. I have fallen on my face - not literally, thank goodness! - many times. But I always survive. And I don't let it stop me.

Music in general and lately opera in particular fills my soul with hope and inspiration.

I have gotten better at being patient and sitting with discomfort. Before I would worry and try to fix an issue and force circumstances to change or try to change people's minds sooner than was realistic. Now I wait and trust that everything passes and time really does heal everything.

I try to be mindful in my daily life, trying to stay more present and have more intention. It keeps me calm, and I feel less whipped about by my emotions.