"Opera is when a guy gets stabbed in the back and, instead of bleeding, he sings."
— Ed Gardner

"None of us can choose where we shall love..."
— Susan Kay (Phantom)

"Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings."
— Robert Benchley

"Never ask a question if you don’t know the answer.
— Rhett"
— Rowena Cherry

"You must know that I am made of death, from head to foot, and it is a corpse who loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you!"
— Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera)

"They played at hearts as other children might play at ball; only, as it was really their two hearts that they flung to and fro, they had to be very, very handy to catch them, each time, without hurting them."
— Gaston Leroux (The Phantom of the Opera: The Original Novel)

"You are born an artist or you are not. And you stay an artist, dear, even if your voice is less of a fireworks. The artist is always there.
"
— Maria Callas

"RAOUL:
Free her!
Do what you like,
only free her!
Have you no pity?

PHANTOM:
Your lover makes
a passionate plea!

CHRISTINE:
Please, Raoul, it's useless...

RAOUL:
I love her!
Does that mean nothing?
I love her!
Show some compassion...

PHANTOM:
The world showed no
compassion to me!
"
— Andrew Lloyd Webber

"I give you five minutes to spare your blushes. here is the little bronze key that opens the ebony caskets on the mantle piece in the Louise-Phillipe room. In one of the caskets you will find a scorpion, in the other, a grasshopper, both very cleverly imitated in Japanese bronze: they will say yes or no for you. If you turn the scorpion round, that will mean to me, when I return that you have said yes. The grasshopper will mean no... The grasshopper, be careful of the grass hopper! A grasshopper does not only turn: it hops! It hops! And it hops jolly high!"
— Gaston Leroux

"Dedication: My thanks to the people who showed me that opera was stranger than I could imagine. I can best repay their kindness by not mentioning their names here."
— Terry Pratchett (Maskerade)

"It was silly, wasn't it? But the singing made it not silly."
— Audrey Niffenegger

"Without a doubt it was Dr. Urbino's most contagious initiative, for opera fever infected the most surprising elements in the city and gave rise to a whole generation of Isoldes and Otellos and Aidas and Siegfrieds. But it never reached the extremes Dr. Urbino had hoped for, which was to see Italianizers and Wagnerians confronting each other with sticks and canes during the intermissions."
— Gabriel García Márquez (Love in the Time of Cholera)

"I had reached up and pulled the castle of dreams down around him."
— Susan Kay

"When will I love you? Good lord, I don't know
Maybe never, maybe tomorrow.
But not today, that's certain.
Love is a rebellious bird
That nothing can tame....

"
— Carmen

"I have no particular plan in life - and that's something I rather like. Most things that people do seem to me to be rather dull and silly. In my ideal life I'd be left alone to read - Mamie Doran"
— Elizabeth Knox

"Erik, Erik! I saved your life! Remember? You were scentenced to death! But for me you would be dead by now. "
— Gaston Leroux

"I want you to take off the mask, Erik, do you hear me? I want you to take it off right now.
-Luciana"
— Susan Kay

"My heart foreseeing your condemnation, I made my way to your tomb by stealth, far from every human gaze, for in your arms I wished to die..."
— Giuseppi Verdi