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.
MARIA CALLASAn 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.
More Maria Callas Quotes
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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.
MARIA CALLAS -
I cannot switch my voice. My voice is not like an elevator going up and down.
MARIA CALLAS -
Only when I was singing did I feel loved.
MARIA CALLAS -
Women are not pals enough with men, so we must make ourselves indispensable. After all, we have the greatest weapon in our hands by just being women.
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My poor sight gives me an advantage. I can’t see the people in the audience who are scratching their heads while I am lost in my role and giving everything I have to the drama.
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I belong to the givers. I want to give a little happiness even if I haven’t had much for myself. Music has enriched my life and, hopefully – through me, a little – the public’s. If anyone left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I achieved my purpose.
MARIA CALLAS -
What is there in life if you do not work? There is only sensation, and there are only a few sensations— you cannot live on them. You can only live on work, by work, through work. How can you live with self-respect if you do not do things as well as lies in you?
MARIA CALLAS -
Paris dictates fashion to the whole world.
MARIA CALLAS -
First I lost weight, then I lost my voice, and now I’ve lost Onassis.
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I don’t need the money, dear. I work for art.
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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.
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When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.
MARIA CALLAS -
When I did not become enemies, then I understand that there was nothing standing.
MARIA CALLAS -
ART is domination. It’s making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.
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Only my dogs will not betray me.
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I want to be a mature artist with a different kind of thinking.
MARIA CALLAS -
Don’t talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.
MARIA CALLAS -
It’s a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven’t.
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I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not a devil, either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged.
MARIA CALLAS -
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.
MARIA CALLAS -
Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not. It is a matter of opinion. All I can say, those who don’t like it shouldn’t come to hear me.
MARIA CALLAS -
I will not be sued! I have the voice of an angel!
MARIA CALLAS -
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.
MARIA CALLAS -
The public is a monster and that is why I am not eager to return to the stage.
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I don’t know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.
MARIA CALLAS -
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.
MARIA CALLAS