I saw The Sound of Music when I was 10 and thought that it was the most beautiful singing I had ever heard.

I performed in Sydney some years ago for the Sydney Festival and I am just so pleased to be returning to the wonderful Sydney Opera House and also performing in Melbourne for the first time.

I would just like to say that opera is no longer about fat people in breastplates shattering wine glasses.

That was when I realised that music is the most profound, magical form of communication there is.

I do hope that our spring will be starting shortly and we will all be able to enjoy some sunshine again.

Opera is credible drama now, and it costs less than going to a football match. What have you got to lose?

The musical heritage of Yorkshire is deep and wide.

To tell you the truth, I never listen to opera at home.

I'm engaging my diaphragm as I'm speaking to you right now.

There are a lot of unseen elements to having a successful singing career.

It worries me that young singers think you can shortcut the training and go straight to fame and fortune, and programmes like Pop Idol have encouraged that.

Words can be borrowed but thoughts can never be stolen. You are a born thinker.

My position concerning God is that of an agnostic.

Families composed of rugged individualists have to do things obliquely.

good is too often allied with vulnerability and evil with power.

Killing a man in defense of an idea is not defending an idea; it is killing a man.

And as an ev'ning dragon came, Assailant on the perched roosts And nests in order rang'd Of tame villatic fowl.

Mr. President, the dedication of 35 percent of all construction contracts to women is really mind blowing to say the least. President Jonathan's benevolence to women is unbelievably phenomenal.

a celebrity is someone who no longer does the things that made him a celebrity.

I actually don't miss modeling and I think the reason why is because of America's Next Top Model.

Who is it that can tell me who I am?