The Opera ghost really existed. He was not, as was long believed, a creature of the imagination of the artists, the superstition of the managers, or a product of the absurd and impressionable brains of the young ladies of the ballet, their mothers, the box-keepers, the cloak-room attendants or the concierge. Yes, he existed in flesh and blood, although he assumed the complete appearance of a real phantom; that is to say, of a spectral shade.
Gaston LerouxI am an honest girl, M. le Vicomte de Chagny, and I don't lock myself up in my dressing-room with men's voices.
Gaston LerouxNow I want to live like everybody else. I want to have a wife like everybody else and to take her out on Sundays. I have invented a mask that makes me look like anybody. People will not even turn round in the streets. You will be the happiest of women. And we will sing, all by ourselves, till we swoon away with delight. You are crying! You are afraid of me! And yet I am not really wicked. Love me and you shall see! All I wanted was to be loved for myself. If you loved me I should be as gentle as a lamb; and you could do anything with me that you pleased.
Gaston LerouxTonight I gave you my soul, and I am dead." - Christine, from Gaston Leroux's: The Phantom of the Opera.
Gaston LerouxAre people so unhappy when they love?" "Yes, Christine, when they love and are not sure of being loved.
Gaston Leroux