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.

Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did.

The secret of living is to find people who will pay you money to do what YOU would pay to do if you had the money.

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

Music - opera particularly - is a process which is endurable or successful only if it is achieved by people who love to collaborate.

We must continuously discipline ourselves to I remember how it felt the first moment.

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

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

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

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

Opera is everything rolled into one - music, theater, the dance, color and voices and theatrical illusions.

Live fast. Die young. Be wild. Have fun.

He who looks for advantage out of friendship strips it all of its nobility.

To be comic is merely to be playful, but wit is a serious matter. To laugh at it is to confess that you do not understand.

A protected bicycle lane in the city in a developing country is a powerful symbol, showing that a citizen on the $30 bicycle is as important as one in a $30,000 car

The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.

Candy is my fuel. Ice cream, too.

Oh, nature's noblest gift, my grey goose quill, Slave of my thoughts, obedient to my will, Torn from the parent bird to form a pen, That mighty instrument of little men.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Sorry Mr. Yipes, sir, she won't budge!' Put your back into it, man, give it all you've got!' Bang! Bang! Bang!

For me, I make a schedule and I pass the time. I don't think about the transformation. When my schedule says I'm finished on this day, I put it in the past and go toward my future.

I bow my head to the victims of terrorism. I am highly impressed of the courage of New York residents. The great city and the great American nation are to win!