On conducting: If you can just barely hear the French horns on stage, the balance is perfect.

The human voice is the most beautiful instrument of all, but the most difficult to play.

Never look at the trombones, you'll just encourage them.

Ideas, like young wine, should be put in storage and taken up again only after they have been allowed to ferment and to ripen.

I shall never be converted, and I shall remain true to my old religion of the classics until my life's end.

The aria, after all, is the soul of opera.

The most perfect melodic shapes are found in Mozart; he has the lightness of touch which is the true objective ... Listen to the remarkable expansion of a Mozart melody, to Cherubino's 'Voi che sapete', for instance. You think it is coming to an end, but it goes farther, even farther.