If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

Music is not written in red, white and blue. It is written in the heart's blood of the composer.

The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself

What are we singers but the silver-voiced messengers of the poet and the musician?

Always sing below your potential.

If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one's heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian.

The eternal task of song can never be finished in a single lifetime. That is the beauty and fascination of the art. Once you begin to phrase finely, you will feel more joy in the beautiful finish of a beautiful phrase than that caused by the loudest applause of an immense audience. The latter excites for a moment; the former endures forever.