You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.

A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.

In youth we run into difficulties. In old age difficulties run into us.

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

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.

Anger begins with folly, and ends with repentance.

You don't always get what you ask for, but you never get what you don't ask for... unless it's contagious!

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.

I lived through the garbage. I might as well dine on the caviar.

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.

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

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

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

So long as it doesn't get to the point where you don't remember whose opera you're listening to, I'm willing to experiment.

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

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

Don't get me started on critics.

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

Just sing it. Don't prove you can sing it. I know you can, you know you can. So just do it, because if you try to prove it, you'll lose.

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?

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.

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

Why let one high C ruin your whole evening?

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.

The last major childhood disease remains and it's the worst of them all: nuclear war.

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

I never share credit or desserts.

I really do believe I can accomplish a great deal with a big grin, I know some people find that disconcerting, but that doesn't matter.

There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going.

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

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.

Opera is music AND drama. I'm prepared to sacrifice the beautiful note for the meaningful sound any time... 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.

It was a large voice, and she was a little girl. You know, we were Mutt and Jeff onstage.

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

There are no short cuts to anywhere worth going.

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”

“Sometimes you wake up. Sometimes the fall kills you. And sometimes, when you fall, you fly.”

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes...you're Doing Something.”

“Life is a disease: sexually transmitted, and invariably fatal.”

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”

“People think dreams aren't real just because they aren't made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”

“Stories may well be lies, but they are good lies that say true things, and which can sometimes pay the rent.”

“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”

“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.”

“She says nothing at all, but simply stares upward into the dark sky and watches, with sad eyes, the slow dance of the infinite stars.”

“Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft were written by men.”