I was born in Montreal and came from a lower-middle-class family.

My mother was a wonderful, wonderful woman with a lovely voice who hated housework, hated cooking even more and loved her children. She was always arranging church activities such as a bazaar.

I have had five phenomenal children, a great husband and, even though we are separated, we are good friends.

It makes one a better person to have had hardships and to have overcome hardships and not to blame anybody else for your mistakes.

After Bruno Walter, my career went in leaps and bounds. I have had 35 years of a career that is just incredible, and a wonderful time all over the world.

Perhaps, once I am gone, the one thing I might be remembered for is having sung a great deal of Mahler with a great many phenomenal conductors. It is wonderful music, very spiritual.

Singing beautiful melodies is one thing, but to deliver the text so that the people understand it, even in a foreign language, has to be worked at very hard.

Another turn in my life happened when I took on the Canada Council.

I have been all over the world. I have met some wonderful people, lots of them very simple, whom nobody will ever hear about, but who have been fabulous to me.

I have three grandchildren and am hoping for 20.

If somebody asks me to recommend a young, good singer, I always do.

I’d be glad to go out on a limb with thoseWho want nothing beyond what the wind bestows, Were I not bound to roots, dug in deep to bearNever being done grasping for light and air

No, I am not all right, I want to say. Have you been to my house? Have you seen how empty it is?

Obviously in Art of Noise, I'm just part of the group, and when I do film scores, it's always in collaboration with the director and other people involved.

In America, we've spent trillions of dollars overseas while allowing our own infrastructure to fall into total disrepair and decay.

A lot of times when people are on campaigns, it can be like a movie set.

I think art, at best, holds up a mirror to humanity.

You don't go to Notre Dame to learn something, you go to Notre Dame to be somebody.

Every time I stepped on the field, I believed my team was going to walk off the winner, somehow, someway.

I never hated my father. I would have named my child Usher regardless. I never hated myself because I carried his name, because I made it mean what I wanted it to mean.

I'm sorry, could you please tell me what the definition of the word "is" is?