We exaggerate misfortune and happiness alike. We are never as bad off or as happy as we say we are.
The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself
Music is not written in red, white and blue. It is written in the heart's blood of the composer.
The eternal task of song can never be finished in a single lifetime. That is the beauty and fascination of the art. Once you begin to phrase finely, you will feel more joy in the beautiful finish of a beautiful phrase than that caused by the loudest applause of an immense audience. The latter excites for a moment; the former endures forever.
If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.
If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one's heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian.
There are two things I like stiff and one of them's jelly.
The real meaning of persona is a mask, such as actors were accustomed to wear on the ancient stage; and it is quite true that no one shows himself as he is, but wears his mask and plays his part. Indeed, the whole of our social arrangements may be likened to a perpetual comedy; and this is why a man who is worth anything finds society so insipid, while a blockhead is quite at home in it.
Climate change: We have never faced a more critical time on our planet
Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions. No dignity, no learning, no force of character, can make any stand against good wit.
She's too young. Too innocent. Too human. For what I'm becoming.