People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it.

I'm an enormously talented man, and there's no use pretending that I'm not.

Marriage is the aftermath of love.

What I adore is supreme professionalism. I’m bored by writers who can write only when it’s raining.

But why, oh why, do the wrong people travel, when the right people stay at home?

Madame Bovary is the sexiest book imaginable. The woman's virtually a nyphomaniac but you won't find a vulgar word in the entire thing.

Familiarity breeds contempt, but without a little familiarity it's impossible to breed anything.