“As soon as I arrive at the house, Laurie starts running, hits my chest, knocks me down, and licks my face. It’s become a family ritual.”

I know that anybody who does all this and doesn’t have to, everything thinks she’s very driven. The truth is, I enjoy it all so! Can’t it be that simple?

When you’re in love, the whole world is Jewish.

There is no short cut to a place worth going.

I can make a pretty tone as well as anyone, but there are times when the drama of a scene demands the opposite of a pretty sound.

Art is the signature of civilizations.

I’ve always tried to be cheerful, because I think people who whine are boring, and I never could tolerate bores.

I never share credit or desserts.

There is something in me-I just can’t stand to admit defeat.

My voice had a long, nonstop career. It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do. It can’t.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Opera is an extremely disciplined art form, and every excess a singer indulges in has a direct effect on the voice.

A primary function of art and thought is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgment.

Attachment to spiritual things is… just as much an attachment as inordinate love of anything else.

Everything you need you already have. You are complete right now, you are a whole, total person, not an apprentice person on the way to someplace else. Your completeness must be understood by you and experienced in your thoughts as your own personal reality.