"Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me."

"Opera is one of the most important art forms. It should be listened to and appreciated by everyone."

"The better voice doesn't mean being a better singer."

"If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them."

"The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other."

"Above all, I am an opera singer. This is how people will remember me."

"I want to be famous everywhere."

"You don't need any brains to listen to music."

"He wants only to rest and to have a little peace."

"I was an elementary school teacher."

"It is a very honest world, our work. I think you cannot fake anything."

"It is so important for people at a young age to be invited to embrace classical music and opera."

"People have a right to criticize."

"I am open to everything."

"In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things."

"Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not?"

"I want to reach as many people as possible with the message of music, of wonderful opera."

"For me, music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion."

"Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail."

"The music itself could never take the place of my own passion in life."

"Why should be elite, music? Excuse me. Music must be for everybody."

"There is no prodigy in our profession. If you see all the great singer of the past, none of them are."