Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Beverly Sills

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Beverly Sills.

Last updated on September 18, 2024.

Beverly Sills was an American operatic soprano whose peak career was between the 1950s and 1970s.

American - Musician | May 25, 1929 - July 2, 2007

Source: Wikipedia

Opera became popular in Texas the same way it did in a lot of previously isolated regions of the nation. It started with money. In the case of Texas, it was oil money, and it made a lot of people very rich, very fast.

Beverly Sills

My voice had a long, nonstop career. It deserves to be put to bed with quiet and dignity, not yanked out every once in a while to see if it can still do what it used to do. It can't.

Beverly Sills

I never breathe through the nose, not when I'm singing. In the opera, you don't have so much time. That's fine at the beginning of an opera or after somebody else has been doing an aria, and you want to get a good fresh start.

Beverly Sills

When I was general director of City Opera, we were pioneers in the practice of projecting supertitles so that American audiences finally could know what all the singing was about.

Beverly Sills

You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.

Beverly Sills

Art is the signature of civilizations.

Beverly Sills

You can't imitate; all our faces are constructed differently... and the vocal cords; otherwise, we'd all sound alike. I don't think anybody should ever teach by imitating.

Beverly Sills

The 'Daughter of the Regiment' that I did in Boston was vintage Sarah Caldwell, which is to say it was brilliant. Before my career was over, I'm sure I sang the role of Marie at least a hundred times, often in productions that cost a fortune, but none touched hers.

Beverly Sills

This joyfulness that I felt when I sang, and this need to communicate with people, these are my two strongest points. I've always been a people person. I love people; I like to be with people, and when I got on stage, I was home free.

Beverly Sills

I began by listening to my mother's collection of Amelita Galli-Curci and Lily Pons records, and then was taken (at age eight) to hear Pons at a Met performance of Lakme. It was at that moment that I decided to become an opera star. Not just an opera singer, but an opera star!

Beverly Sills

I was always the first person in the theater all the time. If it was an eight-o'clock curtain, I was here at five-thirty, and it wasn't that I needed to vocalize, because I was all warmed up. I couldn't wait for it to begin.

Beverly Sills

I love Massenet - 'Manon' had been a wonderful role for me - and the music he wrote for 'Thais' is quite enjoyable and not terribly demanding in a vocal sense.

Beverly Sills

A happy woman is one who has no cares at all; a cheerful woman is one who has cares but doesn't let them get her down.

Beverly Sills

I think you have to take everything that looks like a blow and turn it into a triumph. This is where my energy comes from: I just won't be licked.

Beverly Sills

You see why we play so many crazy ladies. We have to be crazy to start with.

Beverly Sills

At the beginning, I thought, 'Oh, I can't criticize a singer who's doing a role that I adored... even a role I didn't do.' And then I thought, 'The heck with that! Thirty years of experience... ask the girl who did it!' And I feel that if they're not willing to take what I have to say, that's fine! But I'm going to say it.

Beverly Sills

My father died five days before I returned to New York. He was only fifty-three years old. My parents and my father's doctor had all decided it was wiser for me to go to South America than to stay home and see Papa waste away. For a long time, I felt an enormous sense of guilt about having left my father's side when he was so sick.

Beverly Sills

I got out while they were still fighting to buy tickets to hear me. I believe in getting out when you're on top, and that's what I did.

Beverly Sills

There is a growing strength in women but it's in the forehead, not the forearm.

Beverly Sills

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Beverly Sills

I frequently say that I never share blame, I never share credit, and I never share desserts!

Beverly Sills

I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up.

Beverly Sills

In a sense, I revolutionized the operatic scene because I proved you can make a great international career without the Metropolitan. I'm the only singer who's done that, and I'm proud of that, so it's all worked out for the best.

Beverly Sills

I lived through the garbage. I might as well dine on the caviar.

Beverly Sills

My parents never told me about Papa's lung cancer or the desperate nature of the operations he was about to undergo, which were a last-ditch effort to contain the spread of his cancer.

Beverly Sills

There are an awful lot of skinny people in the cemetery.

Beverly Sills

There is something in me-I just can't stand to admit defeat.

Beverly Sills

As soon as I arrive at the house, Laurie starts running, hits my chest, knocks me down, and licks my face. It's become a family ritual.

Beverly Sills

I had found a kind of serenity, a new maturity. I didn't feel better or stronger than anyone else but it seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not - more important now was for me to love them. Feeling that way turns your whole life around; living becomes the act of giving.

Beverly Sills

There is a growing strength in women, but it is in the forehead, not in the forearm.

Beverly Sills

The last major childhood disease remains and it's the worst of them all: nuclear war.

Beverly Sills

I've always tried to be cheerful, because I think people who whine are boring, and I never could tolerate bores.

Beverly Sills

When you're in love, the whole world is Jewish.

Beverly Sills

Opera is an extremely disciplined art form, and every excess a singer indulges in has a direct effect on the voice.

Beverly Sills

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.

Beverly Sills

The Lourie Center eases the burden of children and their families through early intervention and diagnoses and treatment.

Beverly Sills

There were times in my career ... when I felt like a trapeze artist doing dangerous somersaults without a net underneath. When you execute those somersaults flawlessly, the audience feels the same sense of triumph the performer does.

Beverly Sills

There is no short cut to a place worth going.

Beverly Sills

Don't get me started on critics.

Beverly Sills

I know that anybody who does all this and doesn't have to, everything thinks she's very driven. The truth is, I enjoy it all so! Can't it be that simple? I think it is! I don't feel overworked. I get a constant kick out of being heavily committed. Is that sick or something? God, what would I do sitting still?

Beverly Sills

So long as it doesn't get to the point where you don't remember whose opera you're listening to, I'm willing to experiment.

Beverly Sills

The press frequently sneers at the hype devoted to a superstar, but the press itself is responsible for all the hype.

Beverly Sills

It seemed no longer important whether everyone loved me or not, more important now was for me to love them

Beverly Sills

Opera is music AND drama. I'm prepared to sacrifice the beautiful note for the meaningful sound any time... I can make a pretty tone as well as anyone, but there are times when the drama of a scene demands the opposite of a pretty sound.

Beverly Sills

I don't share blame. I don't share credit. And I don't share desserts.

Beverly Sills