I am a person of the 18th century.

I think, first of all, you need to love what you're doing, and then this helps in the comedian for its part in everything-but the moment you enjoy what you're doing, you try to express yourself, to find your way, and every time is different, of course.

So I like to make music, and I like to share music. This is also a gift.

The first time I sang with David Daniels... I had never performed with a countertenor before. That first time was magic, it was so beautiful. And he's such a great artist.

I still love to walk in the mountains or be on the sea. I like to be in nature. Sometimes I bicycle. It's important to feel good with your body. The body is extremely important. If you feel good, you have more energy in your singing.

So you see, movies are really another dimension.

Arizona is gorgeous. The sunshine in Arizona is gorgeous red.

We consider Monteverdi the first composer of opera. There was someone before, but everything started with Monteverdi.

Well, what I tried to do is to just listen to my voice, because my voice is my boss. She decides.

It's nice to have a great female composer in the program and add her color.

The songs of Bizet are by a French peer of Rossini. When Rossini stopped composing, he was living in Paris. He also wrote some beautiful songs in French.

I am a person of the 18th century.

The voice is an instrument that you really must take time to develop. It's like a good red wine Give it time.

When you are accompanied by the instrument - on an instrument like the lute-the lute and voice - you have this sound, and you feel how the music can be so touching and yet so simple.

It's a dream come true, and with this music, with this Rossini, it's unbelievable how to express the joy and express the joy of the situation and the joy to play this music, to sing this music, it's really fantastic.

The voice will guide you-will tell you what to do. In order to do that, you must be quite sensitive with the instrument and accept this daily conversation with your voice.

I did a concert... in September with the Berlin Philharmonic... They're great musicians, and there's always something to learn from them.

I still the love classic period, but also the baroque period, and even 17th-Century music such as the music of Monteverdi. He's one of the greatest opera composers. He was the one who really started the opera.

Music is a way to dream together and go to another dimension.

Well, I don't think a specific role can destroy your voice. What can destroy your voice is when you... make an error. Everybody can make an error. But then you need to realize what is your way.

Actually, I feel music becoming more and more important. It's a big source of inspiration. With what's going on in the world, we feel almost desperate. Music also brings you peace.

When I had my first voice lesson I was 15 years old. And I had a really good teacher. This is what made all the difference. A good teacher will teach you the technique, but also how to listen to your voice.

People realize that Salieri is not the man we saw in the Amadeus movie. That man had no talent. It was a great movie, but the Salieri character was a big fiction.

The media can be a really strong vehicle.

The restaurants close here in Salzburg. They don't really have a nightlife in the winter time.

I went to the Conservatory of Music in school in Rome.

The goal is always to make a nice tableau painting with the voice. The more color I can find, the more shadow I can find - the goal is always to make more nuance and colors.

It's like when you want to make a house... the technique is very important.

I would still love to do more Handel. I think Handel was a fantastic composer. I did lots of Vivaldi, but it's also important to do the music of Handel, one of the greatest composers of the 18th century.

German is more familiar now since I live part of the year in Rome and part in the German part of Switzerland. But it's not difficult to sing in German; it's difficult to feel in German. This takes time. It's a culture.

It's such a joy to work with different ensembles and create a collaboration. Rehearsing and building a performance is very interesting for me.

We felt like we just got surrounded by this community of friends.

I do remember seeing Audio Adrenaline and The Newsboys, basically Christian rock, because that was what I was allowed to see by my parents.

If you meet somebody who's spent any length of time in prison, you don't let your guard down. Ever. And really, that's what that was about-if you open up too much, you're asking to get your teeth kicked in.

If my dramatic career doesn't work out, I will go on to research and find cures for Alzheimer's or Parkinson's and other motor neuron diseases. It's a very exciting field of research. But I'd like to continue in drama, so it wouldn't be very smart of me if I blew this amazing opportunity with an inappropriate lifestyle.

Heaven is a beautiful place to be full of beautiful people having a beautiful time

My songs emerge from my life, or wherever they do, unbidden and unplanned and completely on a schedule of their own.

When people think of biblical movies, they imagine sweeping epics like 'The Ten Commandments.' But 'The Gospel According to St. Matthew' is essentially a documentary about Jesus. It made me aware of how real life and personal experience can create more breathtaking, sensitive cinema than more sophisticated techniques.

While writing 'Cold Mountain,' I held maps of two geographies, two worlds, in my mind as I wrote. One was an early map of North Carolina. Overlaying it, though, was an imagined map of the landscape Jack travels in the southern Appalachian folktales. He's much the same Jack who climbs the beanstalk, vulnerable and clever and opportunistic.

As a former high school teacher and a student in a class of 60 urchins at St. Brigid's grammar school, I know that education is all about discipline and motivation. Disadvantaged students need extra attention, a stable school environment, and enough teacher creativity to stimulate their imaginations. Those things are not expensive.

Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember - the only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you.

I think that a good Left is a party that always thinks about the future and doesn't care much about our past sins.

Once you don't vote your ideals... that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

It's funny, one of my most solid carpet moments happened in the very beginning, before I started thinking that I needed all these other people to do my hair and makeup, and pick out my clothes. I wore a cheetah sweater and a red hat, and it's one of my favorite looks, even still.

Confidence is the number one thing I find attractive.

Only the change on the international scene, the crisis in the gulf, and the strong, firm position of the United States against aggression between two Arab countries created realities that led to the Madrid Peace Conference.

When I was a young comic just starting out, I was very cautious, as I didn't want to alienate people. George Carlin's bravery became a benchmark. I became perfectly fine with alienating some people in the audience. That just comes with the territory.

Dialogue is character and character is plot.

Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn't matter which color does the hating. It's just plain wrong.