Quotes About Callas

“I was always a fan of the old-style comics. I loved vaudeville. I loved Milton Berle, Dick Shawn, Phyllis Diller, Don Rickles, Charlie Callas, all those guys. Hilarious. I love the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope movies, and Abbott & Costello. My television influences were 'Monty Python's Flying Circus,' 'Benny Hill,' and 'Hee Haw.'”

— Larry The Cable Guy

“I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.”

— Maria Callas

“Oh gods, Jean. Take a false name wherever we end up. Tavrin Callas is good. Let the bastard pop up all over the place.”

— Scott Lynch

“I love to sing, and I warm up to Maria Callas.”

— Cybill Shepherd

“Debajo de las palabras que dices, me parece escuchar otras que callas”

— José Saramago

“The most widely criticised singers in the history of opera, Maria Callas and Franco Corelli, happen also to be the best singers. I am honoured for being part of their group.”

— Andrea Bocelli

“The first opera I went to see was Maria Callas singing 'Tosca'.”

— Marianne Faithfull

“Me gustas cuando callas porque estas como austente y me oyes desde lejos, y mi voz no te toca. Parece que los ojos se te hubieran volado y parece que un beso te cerrara la boca. Como todas las cosas estan llenas de mi alma emerges de las cosas, llena del alma mia. Mariposa de sueno, te pareces a mi alma, y te pareces a la palabra melancolia.”

— Pablo Neruda

“I will not enter into a public feud with Madame Callas, since I am well aware that she has considerably greater competence and experience at that kind of thing than I have.”

— Rudolf Bing

“When Callas carried a grudge, she planted it, nursed it, fostered it, watered it and watched it grow to sequoia size.”

— Harold C. Schonberg

“In those days, you had to like one or the other. You couldn't like Sutherland AND Callas.”

— Terrence McNally

“For sheer strength of character, I wouldn't have dared to cross swords with Callas. I would rather have gone six rounds with Jack Dempsey.”

— John Huston

“When I was a teenager, I dreamed of being an opera singer like Maria Callas or a jazz singer like June Christy or Chris Connor, or approaching songs with the kind of mystical lethargy of Billie Holiday, or championing the downtrodden like Lotte Lenya. But I never dreamed of singing in a rock-and-roll band.”

— Patti Smith