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" I will always demand the right for theatre to talk about anything and anyone. Without exception. None. "

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" I'm a follower of people not necessarily connected with the theater. "

" I've always been a little scared of technology, which is why I explore it. "

" We tend to forget that in those days before the Internet and HBO and Imax and 3-D cinema, opera was the thing. Opera and theatre. If you were a man of the world and you mingled among the happy few, you would be at the opera. "

" I admire people who can spend every aspect of their life in one discipline and really go all the way. I feel the only way I could achieve some type of excellence is if I connect to other people, other disciplines. "

" I'm trying to tell history with a capital H through histories with a small h. It moves people, because you know in your own personal relationships, your own story, there's an echo to a much larger reality. "

" If you're going to do a show about somebody who dumped you, it's much richer if you have three characters dealing with different aspects of that theme. There is more space for people to identify with it. "

" A show is good when there is a meeting of time and space, when time and space become irrelevant. "

" Opera should be a place for art forms to meet. I've worked a lot with Peter Gabriel; his music isn't operatic, but he creates big, popular gatherings to which architecture, dance, and music are all invited. "

" Artists always try to make something that is going to be relevant and up-to-the-minute. "

" Without meaning to sound crass, I've never had any psychological... help. It's because I feel my work is so revealing about who I am and what I am trying to understand about myself. It's a therapeutic process. "

" Reading fairytales to children expands their imaginations. "

" Opera needs a major makeover; the large opera houses are too in thrall to their conservative patrons. "

" When I directed the 'Ring' cycle at the Metropolitan Opera in New York recently, there were people texting all through the show. But theatre isn't a communication device: it's a communion. "

" In Grade 2, when we had to do a presentation in front of the class, I'd always do things about Ireland or Italy. I could draw maps; I could name all the capitals: I was completely drawn to other lands. I discovered with time that it's a thirst for other people, for otherness, for something fascinating and mysterious. "

" If Darwin's theories are true, then we have within us the physical memory of when we were fish or apes. "

" I don't think there is any kind of magic about what I do. All of the connections are there, somewhere in the subconscious or in the collective unconscious. If I let the elements speak to each other, then these coincidences will happen. And they do happen. They happen all the time. "

" In everything I've done, I've always tried to make room for indigenous people, to include them. "

" Writing is very much perceived as something distinct from performance. I don't see it like that. "

" Often, particularly towards the end of the process, I think of myself less as a theatre director and more as someone who just directs the traffic. My job is to move the ideas and bits of the show into the places where they work best. Sometimes my job is also to say, 'No.' "

" When we were working on 'River Ota' in the '90s, I learnt to read Japanese, which was how I discovered that it incorporates elements of Chinese calligraphy. "

" I don't disagree with the critics often, and I'm not destroyed by bad criticism anymore. There comes a point when you go beyond it. "

" It's obvious that any new show comes with its share of blunders, misfires, and bad choices. "

" When we work on a new theatre piece, we improvise a lot. But it's the opposite in opera, where everything is fixed. "

" I was a privileged observer to be there when Celine Dion opened at Caesars Palace and then the second Gulf War started. It was an odd thing to see the impact both events had on Vegas. The place was riding high after Celine, but overnight, once war was declared, it was deserted. "

" Vegas is the city of temptation. I think, perhaps, it is an experiment by NASA. If we're going to send people to Mars, how will we create false economies and cultures to satisfy them? Vegas has the answer. People go there when they've nothing left to lose. "

" When we did 'The Dragons' Trilogy,' China was a big, mysterious piece of rock that we never thought would even move. It was impenetrable, impossible to deal with. "

" The real writing of a piece comes only when you are performing it. It is why I like theatre. In film and TV, the image is locked forever, but in theatre, there is constant change; each performance is part of the writing process. "

" I find it very strange when people say that they are trying to solve 'Uncle Vanya' or find a solution for 'Henry V.' Plays aren't puzzles. They are about playing. But so much theatre has become about performing and acting rather than playing, which is a great pity because audiences are captivated by watching people play. "

" Opera is a very stimulating place to work, and I believe it offers the most intense theatrical experience possible. "