"I simply threw myself into the Arena with a knife between my teeth and yelled “banzai,” as the Japanese do." (La Razón, July 2006/Gema Pajares, on playing both Canio and Turiddu at the Arena di Verona)

“I hate the word tenor. I don't hate being a tenor, but what I don't like is that 'tenor' puts a trademark on you, from which you cannot move. You know how it goes: $10,000 reward! If you see this man, kill him! He dared to move from tenor!” (Classic CD, December 1999 /Jeremy Pound)

“I do in my conducting what I try to do in my singing:  I try to be as modern as I can...I like pushing things as far as things they can go in one direction, then step back to find a balance.  How do you know what your limits are otherwise?”   (Opera Now, Sept/Oct 2002)

“One who appeals to everyone cannot be original. One who appeals to nobody probably does not do a good work. But if there are people who hate you and others who really love you, the situation cannot be wrong.”   (Budapest, NSZ 19 August 2003) 

“Opera, and classical music in general, are not immediate arts. Unless you take the time to prepare for what you're going to hear, you won't enjoy it in depth.”   (Evening Standard, 6 Jan 2003)

“People used to say that I'm arrogant.  But arrogance is the mask of people who aren't prepared.”   (Scoop / Kevin Gregory)

“I think that God was always surveying and controlling my life and saying, ‘You're going to be a singer even if you don't want to be a singer.  It will take time to convince you, but you're going to be a singer’.”  (Opera News, Oct 99 / Rebecca Paller)

“I’d like to say that this latest CD of mine is dedicated to my country, that our flag is on the cover, and that the CD is called “Aurora” because the most important thing I want to express is that I love Argentina. I want my fellow countrymen to know that to the entire world and with a lot of pride, in an Argentinean tenor.”     (La Nacion, March 2003) 

“Look at my hands. Do you think these are the hands of a tenor? These are the hands of somebody who is alive, which is more different and much more interesting.”  (Interview with Birgit Popp, 1998)

“One of the challenges of trying to keep opera alive is to make it thrilling:  you're taking dangers, you're taking risks, you're making efforts to be different.  Nothing is more frustrating for an audience than having a singer standing open-legged in the middle of the stage, trying to make sure that every note is in exactly the same place.  It's boring.”  (Classicalnet,1998 / Jeremy Pound)

“Sometimes I have been criticised because I have not stood and sung my aria at the front of the stage for the audience, and I'm furious at this.  Yes, of course, you pay for your ticket so I'm singing for you, but my character certainly isn't-he doesn't even know he's being watched!”  (Audiostreet, April 2001/ Catherine Pate)

“The cost of fame is high: you are always in the viewfinder of others, always on the presentation plate.”  (L'Arena, July 2003, Translated by Monica B)

“When I'm recording, I forget about where I am, I try to be the character.  If I have to cry, I cry, if I have to sob, I sob, and if I have to crack, I crack.  The listener must take it or leave it.”  (Gramophone, Nov 1997 / Nick Kimberley)

“If the artist on stage forgets the audience and is so absorbed in his character that they have the impression they are observing the action through a window, then for me that is an ideal performance.”  (Rundschau, May 2001 / Tom Fuchs and Manfred Muller)

“But because you sing in the tenor register, suddenly you become this creature - - The Tenor.  I'm a composer and a conductor.  But when I do those things, there is this suspicion, ‘Oh, but he's a tenor.’”   (About the House, Spring 2001)    

“But you know there's one other thing needed for the real magic and that is the audience's energy. If the artist feels after the first 10 minutes or so that the audience can sense what he's doing, he will give his blood to that performance...that level of energy is the most perfect excitement you can have in the opera house.”  (Audiostreet, April 2001 / Catherine Pate)

“Samson completely misunderstood his gift of strength.  He thought his strength was given to him so he could destroy anyone who didn’t agree with him.  He may have thought he was very spiritual, but he was not.  He reduced everything to simply killing and taking.”    (Lyric Opera News, Fall 2003)     

“I think that human beings are like fruit. When the fruits ripen past their prime and rot, they are thrown away.  That goes for humans, too.  So, I think the best way is not to ripen fully.”   (Interview, Japan 2002)     

“...the purists say I scoop a note here and there.  I say, well I have been scooping notes all my life.  I'm trying to get better, but sometimes that is part of my way of singing.  It is my trademark, a certain kind of noise here and there.  I will never be a technically spotless singer.”  (Madison, March/April 2000 / Robert Hofler)

“[Gran Teatre del] Liceu has been the only theater to make me a proposal for 2010. I hope to be alive by then.”    (ABC, Barcelona, April 2003) 

“In this world, courage is viewed as a sign of arrogance.  But the real arrogance is not being prepared to be who they really are.”   (Chicago Sun-Times, 4 Jan 2004)  

“When all this started, the first thing I said to record companies and mangers was 'I am a happy man:  I have my family, I have everything I need.  I am not rich.  I am not poor.  I am okay.  So I beg you that everything we are going to do has to be at a good time and it has to be a good thing.  If not, we don't do it.”   (Opera Now September 1997)

“A long time ago I learned an invaluable lesson from a wine-taster. He said to me 'never look at the label before tasting the wine'. Basically, I am what I am, and I present it on stage and that's it.”  (Audiostreet, April 2001 / Catherine Pate)

“In Samson, in the first act, I'm a roaring beast.  In the third act, I sing almost without voice.  He is weak, blind, tortured, almost surely castrated.  His soul is talking with God.”  (The Standard Times, September 1999 / Mary Campbell, AP)

“You have to try not to be seduced by the media machine - you are part of it but you don’t want to get caught up in it, if you see what I mean. You have to focus on what you are doing ... take care that you never compromise your integrity.”   (Audiostreet, April 2001, Catherine Pate)

“I am a composer and conductor who has taken time out to sing.  I will, hopefully, return to what is my real vocation.”  (Independent, 15 Oct 1999 / Fiona Sturges)

“The stage, in our souls and in our innocence, is a place of fantasy.”  Bomb, Winter 2000 (Eduardo Machado)

“Those who speak the most do the least in their lives.”    (Poland)  

“Twenty years ago I composed some songs. Even a Requiem, but it has never been performed. At the moment that is impossible because it’s not the right time for large new projects. With the need of an orchestra of 150 members, a double choir and a children's choir this project cannot be financed. That is why my compositions will only be performed in my bathroom.” (Luister, March 2002)

“When I am criticised as a result of my professional performance, that is OK.  But when the review is about the way I dress, the way I walk, the way I move my hands, that is completely wrong.”  (Electronic Telegraph, April 2001 / Paul Gent)

“When I'm in an opera what am I doing?.. . I'm pretending to be in love or pretending to die or cry.  It's fantasy time.  Every artist does it.  It's allowing yourself to have innocent dreams.”  (Classic FM, December 2000  / Henry Kelly)

“You should have a healthy, well-controlled vanity.  Because if not, what the hell are doing there?”  (Electronic Telegraph April 2001 /Paul Gent)