Inspired by the purse rather than the soul, the mercenary side fairly screams in many of the works put out by every day American publishers.

The real artist has no idea that he is sacrificing himself for art. He does “what he does for one reason and one reason only-he can't help doing it”

Just as the bird sings or the butterfly soars, because it is his natural characteristic, so the artist works.

French is, in many ways, more difficult for an English-speaking person to sing. It is so full of complex and trying vowels. It requires the utmost subtlety.

When the student has her voice under complete control, it is safe to take up the lyric repertoire of Mendelssohn, Old English Songs, etc. How simple and charming they are!

The sincerity of the art worker must permeate the song as naturally as the green leaves break through the dead branches in springtime.

Vocal study before age 20 is likely to be injurious, though some survive it in the hands of very careful and understanding teachers.

A student will send me an urgent appeal to hear her, saying she is poor and wants my advice as to whether it is worth while to continue her studies. I invariably refuse such requests.

The student who deceives himself into thinking that he is giving his life like an ascetic in the spirit of sacrifice for art, is the victim of a deplorable species of egotism.

We are rich in the quantity of songs rather than in the quality. The singer has to go through hundreds of compositions before he finds one that really says something.

In the piano, one has the instrument complete before he begins; but in the case of the voice, the instrument has to be developed by study.

Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.

Which is better: to dare to look directly into the blinding present, no matter how painful, or to await the detachment of hindsight -- which, being less painful, is more objective?

Movie logistics never really allow you to do anything but shoot the way the budget dictates.

Children want the same things we want. To laugh, to be challenged, to be entertained, and delighted.

If you’ve managed to do one good thing, the ocean doesn’t care. But when Newton’s apple fell toward the earth, the earth, ever so slightly, fell toward the apple as well.

I really should have fell but I stood

I was born in '71, so I remember bits of glam rock on 'Top of the Pops' toward the late '70s, but I had no idea what kind of world it was. I didn't like the music, either.

doubts, like facts, are stubborn things.

The primary qualification for a missionary is not love for souls, as we so often hear, but love for Christ.

We have been just going like a house afire, and we couldent see any reason why we shouldent keep right on burning. Our tastes were acquired on credit, and we wanted to keep on enjoying 'em on credit.