It's a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven't.

I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage.

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

It takes a little more time to get into the role, but not very much more. In making a record you don't have the sense of projection over a distance as in an opera house. We have this microphone and this magnifies all details of a performance, all exaggerations. In the theater, you can get away with a very large, very grand phrase. For the microphone, you have to tone it down. It's the same as making a film, your gestures will be seen in close-up, so they cannot be exaggerated as they would be in a theater.

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

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.

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.