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.

Growing up I didn't have a lot of toys and personal entertainment depended on individual ingenuity and imagination - think up a story and go live it for an afternoon.

There's a hysterical tired sense of humor that comes after working 14 hours a day six days a week. I like those things because they take the pressure off the constant stress.

Any attempts at humor immediately after September 11th were deemed tasteless.

Laughter and the broader category of humor are key elements in helping us go on with our life after a loss.

People come up to me as I leave the stage after a performance and tell me tey saw my mother onstage with me every time I sing. I keep a sense of humor about it.

Absurdity is what I like most in life and there's humor in struggling in ignorance. If you saw a man repeatedly running into a wall until he was a bloody pulp after a while it would make you laugh because it becomes absurd.

You hope people are going to be listening to you after you're gone. And they like you better after you're gone.

You can always get the truth from an American statesman after he has turned seventy or given up all hope of the Presidency.

I'm moving on. I should have made that clear when I made the announcement. I guess I wasn't clear. If people think you're leaving a show after all these years you might be retiring. So I understand where they're coming from but I should have impressed the fact that I hope I'm just moving on right now.

I love the Beatles. I haven't named any kids after them but I still really love them. They were the first group that I was ever properly aware of. In my early teens I would sometimes stay in and listen to the radio all day in the hope that I would catch a song by them that I'd never heard before and be able to tape it on my radio-cassette player.

Most American fascists are enthusiastically supporting the war effort. They are doing this even in those cases where they hope to have profitable connections with German chemical firms after the war ends.

Today one year after their divorce Pamela and Tommy Lee announced they're getting back together. You know what that means? There's still hope for Ike and Tina Turner.

My hope is that 10 years from now after I've been across the street at work for a while they'll all be glad they gave me that wonderful vote.

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.

I don't feel a lack of hope. It's just disappointment that after all these years we're still fighting meaningless wars for a handful of people.

I totally disagree with the view that the Tibet struggle will die and there will be no hope for Tibet after the Dalai Lama passes away.