I'm a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better what I have done, even if it's good.

I was an elementary school teacher.

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

Sometime to be called Pavarotti is not always an advantage.

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

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

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

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

I am a very superstitious person.

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

I'm a perfectionist, and I always think that I can do better what I have done, even if it's good.

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.

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

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

I am a tenor buff. I hear myself.

I want to be famous everywhere.

Opera is a beautiful and important diversion for me.

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

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

People have a right to criticize.

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.

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

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

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

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

If you see me once, you cannot confuse me with another.

I am open to everything.

The reason fat people are happy is that the nerves are well protected.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

Horse riding is a perfect comparison with singing.You must know where the double fences are.

The reason fat people are happy is that their nerves are well protected.

Inherently, I'm not a huge extrovert, so I actually find interviews and all the glamour to be a bit challenging sometimes.

The greater the effort the greater the glory.

When I look through my sketchbooks, they bring back moments that I would otherwise have completely forgotten.

There are physical characteristics which are inherited. These include things like good looks, high intelligence, physical coordination. These attributes contribute to success in life, and success in life is a determinant of optimism.

For better or worse, I've always been curious musically. Whether it's opera or Judy Garland or pop, I've deliberately sought those things out. I've never wanted to do the same things over and over. Some think I've accomplished what I set out to do, and others consider me a dilettante.

When I watch a movie, someone's beauty isn't what engages me: it's what's going on internally. And I imagine it's what the audience thinks, too.

Whatever vocation you decide on, track down the best people in the world at doing it and surround yourself with them.

I have a lot of great memories, but I can't imagine anything more exciting than the life I have now.

Interest on debt grows without rain.

Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either.

You shouldn't have any betting in the locker room at all, whether it's baseball or it's horses. You can't beat the horses. You can't beat any kind of gambling because they have the odds.

Nothing in life is as important as you think it is, while you are thinking about it.

The march to our duty here, not merely to ourselves, but to our surroundings, must proceed. God wills it.

Scripts were rather scarce in 1968. We did a lot of Amiri Baraka's plays, the agitprop stuff he was writing. It was at a time when black student organizations were active on the campuses, so we were invited to the colleges around Pittsburgh and Ohio, and even as far away as Jackson, Mississippi.

For whatever reason I tend to get roles that are more damaged.

I'm the opposite of jealous.

I've always been proud of the fact that I can hold it together and I rarely break. It's a point of pride for me.