I would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must.

I don't know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.

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.

Don't come to me with your troubles. I have to work for my money and you are young enough to work too. If you can't make enough money to live on you can jump out of the window or drown yourself.

[During fee negotiations for singing in Vienna:] I'm not interested in money, but it must be more than anyone else gets.

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.