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

I can't be happy every day but I can be cheerful.

Why let one high C ruin your whole evening?

It seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not, more important now was for me to love them

I don't share blame. I don't share credit. And I don't share desserts.

There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going.

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

There were times in my career ... when I felt like a trapeze artist doing dangerous somersaults without a net underneath. When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.

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? I think it is! I don't feel overworked. I get a constant kick out of being heavily committed. Is that sick or something? God, what would I do sitting still?

There are an awful lot of skinny people in the cemetery.

Don't get me started on critics.

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

The press frequently sneers at the hype devoted to a superstar, but the press itself is responsible for all the hype.

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

The Lourie Center eases the burden of children and their families through early intervention and diagnoses and treatment.

I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity... I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not -more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving.

I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.

There is a growing strength in women, but it is in the forehead, not in the forearm.