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

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

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

Callas: "To me, the art of music is magnificent, and I cannot bear to see it treated in a shabby way."

Callas: "It's a very terrible thing to be Maria Callas, because it's a question of trying to understand something you can never really understand."

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

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

Callas: "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."

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

Callas: "Women are not pals enough with men, so we must make ourselves indispensable. After all, we have the greatest weapon in our hands by just being women."

Callas: "I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage."

Callas: "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."

Callas: "If I have stepped on some people at times because I am at the top, it couldn't be helped. What should I do if someone gets hurt... retire?"