If I'd been a housemaid I'd have been the best in Australia - I couldn't help it. It's got to be perfection for me.

The first rule in opera is the first rule in life: see to everything yourself

There are two things I like stiff and one of them's jelly.

Music is not written in red, white and blue. It is written in the heart's blood of the composer.

The eternal task of song can never be finished in a single lifetime. That is the beauty and fascination of the art. Once you begin to phrase finely, you will feel more joy in the beautiful finish of a beautiful phrase than that caused by the loudest applause of an immense audience. The latter excites for a moment the former endures forever.

You won’t be famous until people start saying the worst things they can about you. Don’t worry! It’s a good sign!

If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one's heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian.