Maria Callas Quotes

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

I belong to the givers. I want to give a little happiness even if I haven’t had much for myself. Music has enriched my life and, hopefully - through me, a little - the public’s. If anyone left an opera house feeling more happy and at peace, I achieved my purpose.

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

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

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

An opera begins long before the curtain goes up and ends long after it has come down. It starts in my imagination, it becomes my life, and it stays part of my life long after I've left the opera house.

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

Only when I was singing did I feel loved.

You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.

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

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

When my enemies stop hissing, I shall know I'm slipping.

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.

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.

That is the difference between good teachers and great teachers: good teachers make the best of a pupil's means; great teachers foresee a pupil's ends.

Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not. It is a matter of opinion. All I can say, those who don't like it shouldn't come to hear me.

I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.

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

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

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 would not kill my enemies, but I will make them get down on their knees. I will, I can, I must.

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

When music fails to agree to the ear, to soothe the ear and the heart and the senses, then it has missed the point.

Love is so much better when you are not married.

Only my dogs will not betray me.