An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.

On stage, I am in the dark.

First I lost my voice, then I lost my figure and then I lost Onassis.

I don't need the money, dear. I work for art.

Good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.

I was always too mature for my age - and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.

An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.

There must be a law against forcing children to perform at an early age. Children should have a wonderful childhood. They should not be given too much responsibility.

That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

If I have stepped on some people at times because I am at the top, it couldn't be helped. What should I do if someone gets hurt... retire?

I would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must.

I don't know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged.

I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage.

When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping.

I cannot switch my voice. My voice is not like an elevator going up and down.

I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.

Love is so much better when you're not married.

Women are not pals enough with men, so we must make ourselves indispensable. After all, we have the greatest weapon in our hands by just being women.

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.

It's a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven't.

Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.

For someone who writes fiction, in order to activate the imagination and the unconscious, it's essential to be free.

The most dire disaster in love is the death of imagination.

We especially need imagination in science.

There is only one admirable form of the imagination: the imagination that is so intense that it creates a new reality, that it makes things happen.

He is indebted to his memory for his jests and to his imagination for his facts.

It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary.

Politics is the enemy of the imagination.

Happiness is ideal, it is the work of the imagination.

Memories, imagination, old sentiments, and associations are more readily reached through the sense of smell than through any other channel.

You want to do something that shows some type individuality and talent and imagination - at the same time, you want to be truthful to the predecessors, because obviously the audience liked something about them and you have to replicate that experience to a certain extent.

To them though, not to us, we were just a catalyst for their imagination.

In this drawing we just let our imagination run wild. We visualized Superman toys, games, and a radio show - that was before TV - and Superman movies. We even visualized Superman billboards. And it's all come true.

To put yourself in another's place requires real imagination, but by doing so each Girl Scout will be able to love among others happily.

If you use your imagination, you can look at any actress and see her nude... I hope to make you use your imagination.

Toy Soldiers was my introduction to film. I certainly didn't think I was doing art by any stretch of the imagination.

There is hope in dreams, imagination, and in the courage of those who wish to make those dreams a reality.

The worlds I paint leave a lot to engage the imagination by hinting at what lies beyond the four edges of the painting. I think getting beyond the four edges of an opportunity or challenge is one of the basic skills you need in business.

Intelligence is the wife, imagination is the mistress, memory is the servant.

The travel writer seeks the world we have lost - the lost valleys of the imagination.

The past is really almost as much a work of the imagination as the future.

Enthusiasm is that temper of the mind in which the imagination has got the better of the judgment.

I mean, the most important thing to me is imagination.

And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.

War, except in self-defense, is a failure of moral imagination.

Imagination allows us to escape the predictable. It enables us to reply to the common wisdom that we cannot soar by saying, "Just watch!"