Tanglewood [summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra] was a place where gods strode the earth.

The fact is that great musical pieces take and hold the stage because they provide great emotional experiences.

Raving mad is quite easy. You just chew up the scenery or something. It's quiet mad that's hard.

That's what it is that you rehearse - the making of music, not the playing of notes as abstractions.

Once in a while, when everything is just right, there is a moment of magic. People can live on moments of magic.

Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do.

If you approach an opera as though it were something that always went a certain way, that's what you get. I approach an opera as though I didn't know it.