Luciano Pavarotti

"Anthony Tommasini, "An Appraisal: A Master of Italian Operatic Artistry", The New York Times, 6 September 2007"

"Every day I remind myself of all that I have been given. … With singing, you never know when you are going to lose the voice, and that makes you appreciate the time that you have when you are still si…"

"I think an important quality that I have is that if you turn on the radio and hear somebody sing, you know it's me. You don't confuse my voice with another voice."

"In opera, as with any performing art, to be in great demand and to command high fees you must be good of course, but you must also be famous. The two are different things."

"It is not always a matter of wild ovations and legendary performances. Sometimes you are just happy to get through an opera without trouble."

"I remember when I began singing, in 1961, one person said, "run quick, because opera is going to have at maximum 10 years of life." At the time it was really going down. But then, I was lucky enough t…"

"Bernard Holland, "Luciano Pavarotti, Italian Tenor, Is Dead at 71", The New York Times, 6 September 2007, obituary"

"I am a very simple person. In spite of all that has happened to me, I have tried to remain the simple person I started out."