Franz Liszt: “Het kan me niet schelen hoe snel je octaven kunt spelen. Wat ik wil horen is de galop van de paarden van de Poolse cavalerie voordat ze kracht verzamelen en de vijand vernietigen.”
Maria Callas: “Before you sing a phrase, you always prepare it in your face and give it to the public, have it read in your mind, in other words: you think of the phrase, you prepare it on your face and then you actually perform it. That is the beauty of bel canto; offering it to the public and having the public reading your mind and then actually hearing it”