I rebelled against the idea of the artist being what I call the 'after-dinner mint' of society. I didn't want them to be just the entertainers, but rather part of the community - the bread, not only the dessert. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
It takes a Bobby White to make a tired 90-year-old composer write a song about love. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
It's always what you did before. The year before is always so much better. Even when the critics hated what you did then, it… — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
God gives you the gift of melody or He doesn't - it's as simple as that. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
A man only becomes wise when he begins to calculate the approximate depth of his ignorance. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
It was my contention that opera can not only pay for itself if it is well given, but it can also command a much… — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
People ask me whether I'm religious. Well, in a certain way, I am. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
At the premieres, I always watch the audience. If a child asks to go to the bathroom, I know I've failed. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
A Schubert song, the A-major chord at the opening of Wagner's 'Lohengrin' - such incredible beauty is a mystery, the divinity of music. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
I have a heart problem, so I have to simplify my life and be content with memories and friends and music. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share Image
Love, which, in concert with Abstinence, established Faith, and which, along with Patience, builds up Chastity, is like the columns that sustain the four corners of a house. For it was that same Love which planted a glorious garden redolent with precious herbs and noble flowers-roses and lilies-which breathed forth a wondrous fragrance, that garden on which the true Solomon… — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share
I know of no better definition of love than the one given by Proust - Love is space and time measured by the heart. — Gian Carlo Menotti Copy Share
