I felt that the studio recording process makes you stand still too long.

I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the recording studio.

When I perform Strauss, it is as if the music fits me like a glove. My voice seems to lie in a happy area in this music, which is lyrical and passionate at the same time.

We sing these songs for the everyday occasions of life, and they are very close to the hearts of our people.

I felt that the studio recording process makes you stand still too long.

When I'm alone at home, I really prefer to listen to Wagner's orchestral music rather than any vocal music. I find it illuminating not to have to pay attention to voices in the recordings.

I only have so much energy, so something had to go. This is why, at the end of the day, I've preserved my sanity for the children and also manage to do my best at work.

I grew up in the New Zealand countryside. We didn't have television until I was 14, so sing-alongs were our only entertainment.

I never had the influence of any other singer in my music, so I sounded like myself all the time.

I really believe I've been a good person. Not perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody.

I tell students, 'If you are learning from YouTube I almost don't want to teach you because what you learn from YouTube it takes 10 times as long to unlearn.' They do an approximation of the centre of the note, an approximation of the interpretation, a cloned version.

I used to suffer from a lot of regret while touring. Regret at having to leave certain places, people and situations, or just a beautiful day.

I'm completely in charge of my own life now. Sometimes there's no one there to slap me on the hand and say: 'Stop being so bullish and bossy,' and things like that.

I'm more confident now than I've ever been. As you get older, you have to be.

My children are my children. There's no doubt about that at all. They're very strong towards me, very protective, and I towards them. It works both ways.

My energy is undiminished. Someone said to me the other day, 'Are you retired?' and I said, 'Well, I'm just trying to prove that I'm not.' There's so many things to do.

Opera is for a lifetime, not just a minute.

The word 'no' is a very good word in a singer's repertoire.

We must also win really sufficient and, above all, practical, guarantees for the freedom of the seas and for the further fulfilment of our economic and political tasks throughout the world.

Comic-Con was crazy, good crazy... Five minutes after I'm done, the cast of 'Twilight' is where I was sitting.

I'm not some cute guy who is trying to be successful off that. I really want the music to come first.

I lost races because I wanted too much to win them in beating my rivals.

When I'm not working on the ground, spending time with my husband and daughter puts me at ease.

It's embarrassing sometimes, the way actors or musicians sometimes get made untouchable.

Failing to find in women exactly the same kind of sexual emotions, as they find in themselves, men have concluded that there are none there at all.

Sometimes you need to press pause to let everything sink in.

I grew up on food stamps. I come from a very humble background. And I've had many friends that have been destitute - you know, running into trouble - and places like The Midnight Mission have given them hope and have fed them and gotten them back on the right path.

A billion dollars isn't what it used to be.

The slow man with integrity will ultimately catch the swift one who has none.

Being attracted to someone plays a big part, but there's also so much more than that for me. It's about finding someone sweet and kind - and that has a servant's heart.

I am always trying to evolve, so I like to read parenting books and things like that.

I grew up skateboarding, but I don't even do that anymore.

If a person is not talented enough to be a novelist, not smart enough to be a lawyer, and his hands are too shaky to perform operations, he becomes a journalist.

It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.

A man is only as faithful as his options.

I love telling stories and I love writing so the fact that I can do it professionally is something that I've always been very grateful for.

I read somewhere that writers, as they get older, become more and more perfectionist. Which may be because they think more highly of themselves and they worry about their reputations. I think there's some truth to that.

I think that people, despite my law enforcement background, view me as taking these consistently progressive stands, and I think that, philosophically, there is a desire to get at that person. But I think the stands I have taken are totally consistent with a person who is looking at things realistically, factually.

In fact, in many ways my mother was quite hippy-dippy, serving macrobiotic food and reading 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.'

I have always loved food, and for me, even if I was on a beach, I would be cooking food every day.

I don't subscribe to the idea that the founders or anyone else were somehow better than us and that we have to live up to their example.

Often when a person can't get past stress, she will turn to overeating, drinking or smoking, which can become a greater problem than the stress itself.