It worries me that young singers think you can shortcut the training and go straight to fame and fortune, and programmes like Pop Idol have encouraged that.

I performed in Sydney some years ago for the Sydney Festival and I am just so pleased to be returning to the wonderful Sydney Opera House and also performing in Melbourne for the first time.

I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.

That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.

I do hope that our spring will be starting shortly and we will all be able to enjoy some sunshine again.

Opera is credible drama now, and it costs less than going to a football match. What have you got to lose?

The musical heritage of Yorkshire is deep and wide.

To tell you the truth, I never listen to opera at home.

I'm engaging my diaphragm as I'm speaking to you right now.

There are a lot of unseen elements to having a successful singing career.

I do a lot of vocal hygiene.

Passion is the feeling of excitement, energy and enthusiasm you feel towards something or someone you care about.

For me, sleep equaled death. How was closing your eyes and losing consciousness any different from death? What separated temporary loss of consciousness from permanent obliteration?

Hate is more felt than love

In any service where a couple hold down jobs as a team, the male generally takes his ease while the wife labors at his job as wellas her own.

Good leaders are very curious, and they spend a lot of time trying to learn things.

Our acts our angels are, for good or ill, our fatal shadows that walk by us still.

When Republicans used reconciliation in 2001 for the Bush tax cuts, they used it to increase the deficit. The whole purpose of reconciliation is for deficit reduction!

We all just took the bookstore at its word, because if you couldn't trust a bookstore, what could you trust?

The exploitation of women, mass hunger, disregard for freedom of conscience and for freedom of speech, widespread and racial discrimination all these evils are far too prevalent to be overlooked.

When I only had one or two synthesisers you learn how to do everything on those things and you know them inside out. I think that's the best way to be with them.