The music itself could never take the place of my own passion in life.

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.

He supposed that even in Hell, people got an occasional sip of water, if only so they could appreciate the full horror of unrequited thirst when it set in again.

I thought of her as she, and she as her.

The great courageous act that we must all do, is to have the courage to step out of our history and past so that we can live our dreams.

If there is anyone here whom I have not insulted I beg his pardon.

The most difficult job is the one that you never get started on.

The three things that help writing the most are living, writing, and reading. In that order.

Ultimately we must concern ourselves with pulling out by its roots the decadence that controls our culture, the profit motive that controls our culture.

I never for a day gave up listening to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or delineating them in the best way I could.

Everyone is an expert on T.V., just as he is on education; everyone has some education and a T.V. set.

My past is very interesting, and I treasure it, but to write about it, it's just not on my radar.