I became a set designer for opera. I'm a great opera buff I love classical music and I needed a time-out.

My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems seeing a painting listening to some music some opera which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being.

I enjoy all forms of music - pop classical and opera.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

It is essential to do everything possible to attract young people to opera so they can see that it is not some antiquated art form but a repository of the most glorious music and drama that man has created.

No good opera plot can be sensible for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

I do other sorts of things. I act in other people's movies. I direct operas. I write books.

You know when Hollywood does a great big blockbuster that really wraps you up in a world and lets you believe in extraordinary things that move you in some way in an almost operatic sensibility? That to me is the most fun I have at the movies.

De Niro was a hero of mine. And Sean Penn. But I've realized I can't operate at that level of intensity. That's okay for movies. On TV when you live with horror day in and day out you have to protect yourself.

I love classical music and often listen to symphonies or opera in the morning.