“When I did not become enemies, then I understand that there was nothing standing.”

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.

Love is so much better when you are not married.

It’s a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven’t.

I was always too mature for my age – and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.

Don’t talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best.

I will not be sued! I have the voice of an angel!

ART is domination. It’s making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.

I want to be a mature artist with a different kind of thinking.

The public is a monster and that is why I am not eager to return to the stage.

Paris dictates fashion to the whole world.

There must be a law against forcing children to perform at an early age. Children should have a wonderful childhood. They should not be given too much responsibility.

I don’t know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.

On stage, I am in the dark.

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.

Real friends are very special, but you have to be careful because sometimes you have a friend and you think they are made of rock, then suddenly you realise they’re only made of sand.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.

We all have a common enemy, and it is evil.

The wars of Israel were the only ‘holy wars’ in history, there can be no more wars of faith. The only way to overcome our enemy is by loving him.

But thou that didst appear so fair To fond imagination, Dost rival in the light of day Her delicate creation.

I’m a sworn enemy of convention. I despise the conventional in anything, even the arts.

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace.

May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.

It’s right to learn, even from the enemy.