That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.

I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

I don't need the money, dear. I work for art.

My poor sight gives me an advantage. I can't see the people in the audience who are scratching their heads while I am lost in my role and giving everything I have to the drama.

Only when I was singing did I feel loved.

First I lost weight, then I lost my voice, and now I've lost Onassis.