Maria Callas Quotes

When the curtain rises, the only thing that speaks is courage.

I was always too mature for my age - and not very happy. I had no young friends. I wish I could go back to those days. If I could only live it all again, how I would play and enjoy other girls. What a fool I was.

I will always be as difficult as necessary to achieve the best,

Don't talk to me about rules, dear. Wherever I stay I make the goddam rules.

Good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.

Love is so much better when you are not married.

ART is domination. It's making people think that for that precise moment in time there is only one way, one voice. Yours.

When I did not become enemies, then I understand that there was nothing standing.

Only when I was singing did I feel loved.

To sing is an expression of your being, a being which is becoming.

What is there in life if you do not work? There is only sensation, and there are only a few sensations - you cannot live on them. You can only live on work, by work, through work. How can you live with self-respect if you do not do things as well as lies in you?

I will not be sued! I have the voice of an angel!

I don't know what happens to me on stage. Something else seems to take over.

[During fee negotiations for singing in Vienna:] I'm not interested in money, but it must be more than anyone else gets.

What [Tulio Serafin] said that impressed me was: "When one wants to find a gesture, when you want to find how to act on stage, all you have to do is listen to the music. The composer has already seen to that." If you take the trouble to really listen with your soul and with your ears - and I say soul and ears because the mind must work, but not too much also - you will find every gesture there. And it is all true, you know.

If I have stepped on some people at times because I am at the top, it couldn't be helped. What should I do if someone gets hurt ... retire?

I am not an angel and do not pretend to be. That is not one of my roles. But I am not the devil either. I am a woman and a serious artist, and I would like so to be judged.

Real friends are very special, but you have to be careful because sometimes you have a friend and you think they are made of rock, then suddenly you realise they're only made of sand.

It's a terrible thing to go through life thinking that you have a rock on your side when you haven't.

Women are not pals enough with men, so we must make ourselves indispensable. After all, we have the greatest weapon in our hands by just being women.

I admire Tebaldi's tone; it's beautiful - also some beautiful phrasing. Sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice.

Paris dictates fashion to the whole world.

My poor sight gives me an advantage. I can't see the people in the audience who are scratching their heads while I am lost in my role and giving everything I have to the drama.

First I lost weight, then I lost my voice, and now I've lost Onassis.

Love is so much better when you're not married.

I don't need the money, dear. I work for art.

- Who would carry the bell canto
- Of course Montserrat Caballe

First I lost my voice, then I lost my figure and then I lost Onassis.

I want to be a mature artist with a different kind of thinking.