If I weren't reasonably placid, I don't think I could cope with this sort of life. To be a diva, you've got to be absolutely like a horse.

I know I'm not exactly a bombshell, but one has to make the best of what one's got.

You can listen to what everybody says, but the fact remains that you've got to get out there and do the thing yourself.

All singers must be crazy. But we're a nice family of crazy people

The world we are born into-this complicated, difficult, hauntingly touching world-is the one whole thing. It is the world we awaken in, and awaken to.

One is just given a talent, and it's one's duty to make the most of it.

My voice was obviously God given and I have tried to give of myself honestly.

I'm very happy to sing whatever I'm singing. I've always enjoyed any role I've been given at a certain time. They've all been favourites, they've all been wonderful pieces to play.

I don't sing for anybody. I wouldn't sing for the Queen dear.

I wasn't actually trained by my mother, she said she never taught me but she was a great singer herself and I can't remember when I didn't listen to her sing and imitate her.

never's the word God listens for when he needs a laugh.

Dreams are epitome of life.

Like medicine (architecture) must move from the curative to the preventive.

But seventeen is an inconvenient time to fall in love.

I've had two fatwas issued against me by despot mullahs opposed to education - and important to know that the great majority of Imams and Islamic religious leaders support education for all children.

I've been to China and Russia, and I don't know anything about Chinese or Soviet relations.

Scientists generally, not just evolutionary biologists, don't take much for granted.

We are visual creatures. Visual things stay put, whereas sounds fade.

Nigerian nun Bernadette Duru says the African church hierarchy is indifferent to people in rural areas.

Listening to the eternal involves a silence within us.