Gian Carlo Menotti

I can sit on a chair with a score and give myself a wonderful performance. ”

The creation of Spoleto was a social experiment. Because I've always suffered guilt from being a Catholic, when I was in my fifties I felt a need of being needed. ”

As a little boy of 3 or 4, I became lame. Something was wrong with my right leg. There are pictures of me being pulled around in a little wagon. The doctors didn't know what to do. So my nanny took me to the miraculous Madonna at Sacro Monte in Varese, the priest blessed me, and I walked. ”

My advice to composers is, 'Try to reach 90, and everyone will love you.' ”

It takes a Bobby White to make a tired 90-year-old composer write a song about love. ”

I have a heart problem, so I have to simplify my life and be content with memories and friends and music. ”

I should have worked harder in my life. I suffer from a guilt complex. ”

Waiting and hoping are the whole of life, and as soon as a dream is realized it is destroyed. ”

Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do. ”

It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much wider audience if given like a play with lots of rehearsals and wonderful singers that fit the role. ”