Marlene Dietrich
Actress, Singer
"H is for Hardware store: I'd rather go to the hardware store than the opera. And I like the opera."
Opera quotes
Opera
264 quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Nathaniel Parker Willis
Writer
"One gets, sensitive about losing mornings after getting a little used to them with living in a country. Each one of these endlessly varied daybreaks is an opera but once performed."
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright, Critic
"Opera is when a tenor and soprano want to make love, but are prevented from doing so by a baritone."
Bruce Springsteen
Musician, Singer-songwriter
"There's an opera out on the turnpike, there's a ballet being fought out in the alley."
Mark Twain
Writer, Humorist
"The banging and slamming and booming and crashing were something beyond belief. [On Lohengrin]"
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside opera — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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Opera quotes (page 1 of 14)
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"My profession is to be always on the alert to find God in nature, to know his lurking-places, to attend all the oratorios, the operas in nature."
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"I did radio, I did television, I did opera, I did films in which I had very, very little to say. But I had a lot of experience in front of the camera, and that's what really counts."
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"Hey you! I told you to slow that nag down! Because of you, I almost heard the opera!"
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"As a horror movie fan, I was very obsessed with horror films. Still am. I love the genre. For me, horror films are opera, and they are... instead of consumption killing off the young lovers, it's Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. It is when the stakes are at their absolute largest in a story: whether somebody is going to live or die. In a way, it's just holding up a mirror to life."
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"Opera happens because a large number of things amazingly fail to go wrong."
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"The opera tells the story with all the built-in contradictions and from many different angles."
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"I conclude that the Wagnerian operas which are already in the repertoire, and other masterworks as well, stand in no further need of my services."
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"I liked your opera. I think I will set it to music."
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"The Holocaust is not a cheap soap opera. The Holocaust is not a romantic novel. It is something else."
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"Soap opera seems to be a dirty word, but actually they are the most popular shows we have."
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"The more opera is dead, the more it flourishes."
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"I enjoy all forms of music - pop, classical and opera."
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"My operas and my theatre works are very formal pieces."
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"Soloist are inspiring in Opera and perhaps even in small entreprenurial ventures, but there is no place for them in large corporations."
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"That's nothing - my alarm clock is set for eight."
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"In real life as in grand opera, arias only make hopeless situations worse."
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"I tend to sing opera and showtunes in the shower. I don't know why, but when I get in the shower I turn into this big fat opera lady."
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"I love space opera, and I believe that every sub-genre has potential no matter how old it is."
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"Dictatorship is always merely an aria, never an opera."
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"Opera: I like it, except for all those howling sopranos and caterwauling tenors. (Why can't tenors sing like men?)"
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