Unfortunately, it happens all too seldom that you really disappear behind a work, that you are no longer audible as an interpreter.

Many, many composers have only found their way to a certain form, through familiarizing themselves with texts.

And what unity is to be had, at a time when orchestras are dying out, and when opera houses are about to close their doors; what's going to come next - when nothing new in music, for the orchestra, is truly lasting: pieces are performed once, and then they're thrown away.

Anyone who draws attention to himself as an individual, is viewed with suspicion. We acquired this tendency, of course, from America, and we must resist it: levelling, and imitation of what others are already doing.

But, on the other hand, if Schubert were alive today, he would find even richer fields to plow.

Some critics have written that I wanted to teach through singing. Not at all. I was learning I went to school every time I gave a song recital.

The future? Like unwritten books and unborn children, you don't talk about it.