In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things.

People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent, and this is what I have devoted my life to.

The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other.

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

You don't need any brains to listen to music.

As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.

Why am I so often at the mercy of those who don't deserve to control my life?

Let a man overcome anger by love.

I try not to bore my readers.

I guess, you make a big studio film, you spend a lot of money on it and you hope people go see it. It's really risky.

If I see an orchid that's fantastically expensive, I'll buy it. It's worth it, for no other reason than it gives me pleasure.

The two-war strategy is just a marketing device to justify a high [military] budget.

The art world is a very prissy little thing over in the corner, while the major cultural forces are being determined by techno science.

Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.

Fear Allah, for He alone lives; all other things are liable to perish.

when we are young our parents run our life; when we get older, our children do.