Beverly Sills
Art is the signature of civilizations.Collection: Art
I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.Collection: Motivational
There is a growing strength in women but it's in the forehead, not the forearm.Collection: Strength
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
At the beginning, I thought, 'Oh, I can't criticize a singer who's doing a role that I adored... even a role I didn't do.' And then I thought, 'The heck with that! Thirty years of experience... ask the girl who did it!' And I feel that if they're not willing to take what I have to say, that's fine! But I'm going to say it.
A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.
I lived through the garbage. I might as well dine on the caviar.
I never breathe through the nose, not when I'm singing. In the opera, you don't have so much time. That's fine at the beginning of an opera or after somebody else has been doing an aria, and you want to get a good fresh start.
My voice had a long, nonstop career. It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do. It can't.
In a sense, I revolutionized the operatic scene because I proved you can make a great international career without the Metropolitan. I'm the only singer who's done that, and I'm proud of that, so it's all worked out for the best.
You can't imitate; all our faces are constructed differently... and the vocal cords; otherwise, we'd all sound alike. I don't think anybody should ever teach by imitating.
This joyfulness that I felt when I sang, and this need to communicate with people, these are my two strongest points. I've always been a people person. I love people; I like to be with people, and when I got on stage, I was home free.
I was always the first person in the theater all the time. If it was an eight-o'clock curtain, I was here at five-thirty, and it wasn't that I needed to vocalize, because I was all warmed up. I couldn't wait for it to begin.
I began by listening to my mother's collection of Amelita Galli-Curci and Lily Pons records, and then was taken (at age eight) to hear Pons at a Met performance of Lakme. It was at that moment that I decided to become an opera star. Not just an opera singer, but an opera star!
When I was general director of City Opera, we were pioneers in the practice of projecting supertitles so that American audiences finally could know what all the singing was about.
I love Massenet - 'Manon' had been a wonderful role for me - and the music he wrote for 'Thais' is quite enjoyable and not terribly demanding in a vocal sense.
The 'Daughter of the Regiment' that I did in Boston was vintage Sarah Caldwell, which is to say it was brilliant. Before my career was over, I'm sure I sang the role of Marie at least a hundred times, often in productions that cost a fortune, but none touched hers.
Opera became popular in Texas the same way it did in a lot of previously isolated regions of the nation. It started with money. In the case of Texas, it was oil money, and it made a lot of people very rich, very fast.
My parents never told me about Papa's lung cancer or the desperate nature of the operations he was about to undergo, which were a last-ditch effort to contain the spread of his cancer.
My father died five days before I returned to New York. He was only fifty-three years old. My parents and my father's doctor had all decided it was wiser for me to go to South America than to stay home and see Papa waste away. For a long time, I felt an enormous sense of guilt about having left my father's side when he was so sick.
You see why we play so many crazy ladies. We have to be crazy to start with.
I think you have to take everything that looks like a blow and turn it into a triumph. This is where my energy comes from: I just won't be licked.
I got out while they were still fighting to buy tickets to hear me. I believe in getting out when you're on top, and that's what I did.
I frequently say that I never share blame, I never share credit, and I never share desserts!
I don't share blame. I don't share credit. And I don't share desserts.Collection: Inspirational
I can't be happy every day but I can be cheerful.Collection: Cheerful
I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity. I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not - more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving.Collection: Love
There is no shortcut to anyplace worth going.Collection: Shortcuts
Just sing it. Don't prove you can sing it. I know you can, you know you can. So just do it, because if you try to prove it, you'll lose.Collection: Trying
There is no short cut to a place worth going.Collection: Cutting
There is a growing strength in women, but it is in the forehead, not in the forearm.Collection: Inspirational
I've always tried to be cheerful, because I think people who whine are boring, and I never could tolerate bores.Collection: Thinking
Opera is music AND drama. I'm prepared to sacrifice the beautiful note for the meaningful sound any time... I can make a pretty tone as well as anyone, but there are times when the drama of a scene demands the opposite of a pretty sound.Collection: Beautiful
I really do believe I can accomplish a great deal with a big grin, I know some people find that disconcerting, but that doesn't matter.Collection: Believe
It seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not, more important now was for me to love themCollection: Important
The last major childhood disease remains and it's the worst of them all: nuclear war.Collection: War
Opera is an extremely disciplined art form, and every excess a singer indulges in has a direct effect on the voice.Collection: Art
There were times in my career ... when I felt like a trapeze artist doing dangerous somersaults without a net underneath. When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.Collection: Artist
My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.Collection: Brother
I know that anybody who does all this and doesn't have to, everything thinks she's very driven. The truth is, I enjoy it all so! Can't it be that simple? I think it is! I don't feel overworked. I get a constant kick out of being heavily committed. Is that sick or something? God, what would I do sitting still?Collection: Work
The press frequently sneers at the hype devoted to a superstar, but the press itself is responsible for all the hype.Collection: Hype
There are an awful lot of skinny people in the cemetery.Collection: People
When you're in love, the whole world is Jewish.Collection: World
Don't get me started on critics.Collection: Critics
There is something in me-I just can't stand to admit defeat.Collection: Defeat
As soon as I arrive at the house, Laurie starts running, hits my chest, knocks me down, and licks my face. It's become a family ritual.Collection: Funny
So long as it doesn't get to the point where you don't remember whose opera you're listening to, I'm willing to experiment.Collection: Long
I never share credit or desserts.Collection: Credit
Why let one high C ruin your whole evening?Collection: Ruins