“You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.”

“An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.”

“I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage.”

“That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.”

“When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.”

“That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means great teachers foresee a pupil's ends. ”

“When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping.”

“You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.”