Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.

People think I'm disciplined. It is not discipline. It is devotion. There is a great difference.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.

I think a life in music is a life beautifully spent, and this is what I have devoted my life to.

The rivalry is with ourself. I try to be better than is possible. I fight against myself, not against the other.

If children are not introduced to music at an early age, I believe something fundamental is actually being taken from them.

Music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.

You don't need any brains to listen to music.

As an art form, opera is a rare and remarkable creation. For me, it expresses aspects of the human drama that cannot be expressed in any other way, or certainly not as beautifully.

Am I afraid of high notes? Of course I am afraid. What sane man is not?

I love Starbucks. Maybe that's a bit sad. But I definitely need my caffeine. It's what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Force works on servile natures, not the free.

I enjoy bathing, as many Europeans don't.

We are stark naught all, bad's the best of us.

My wife is my first audience. She's a tough lady, so I can't say that I ever scare her. Except, of course, when she sees me the way I look before breakfast.

If the actions used in performing sleights are visible or even suspected by the onlooker, the whole illusion of magic is destroyed.

We must move "out of our mind" and dwell in our consciousness.

There is not a single spot between Christianity and atheism, upon which a man can firmly fix his foot.

It is important to remember that we are energy. Einstein told us that. And energy cannot be created or destroyed, it just changes form.

I had the same manager as Frank Sinatra, so I got to meet him and he truly impressed me. He had this magical aura - the whole atmosphere in the room changed when he walked in.