“To me [Sydney Opera House] looks like a portable typewriter full of oyster shells, and to the contention that it echoes the sails of yachts on the harbour I can only point out that the yachts on the harbour don't waste any time echoing opera houses.”

“Can you hear me when I sing?
You're the reason I sing.
You're the reason the opera is in me
Well, hey now
Still got to let you know
A house just don't make a home
Don't leave me here alone”

“The floorboards point in parallel lines to a vanishing point that does not concern us -- somewhere beyond the opera house, across the streets, across the houses of the suburbs, all the way to a hypothetical single dot… on the sea's horizon. Far from this sour drama.”

“Thank you. How-DY! Whoops, wrong opera house. How do you like the play, Mr. Lincoln? Duck!”

“So, I was to talk about "Opera as Related to Literature", was I not? And because the subject is so vast, I have wandered here and there, trying to illuminate, as if with a candle, a vast chamber full of fascinating corners, mysterious with mirrors, and echoing with some of the loveliest music ever written. I have not succeeded on any high level, but then, I never expected to do so. But perhaps I have thrown out an idea or two which you would like to consider for yourselves.”

“[on buying a private island] Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it buys you a big enough yacht to sail right up to it.”

“That her relationship with him was like being content in a house but always sitting by the window and looking out”

“With the reopening of the school and church, and the building of an opera house, the spirit of these people would have a new light. I think it would please me to see a light at the end of the tunnel after 125 years.”

“Delacroix was right. It is the struggle that matters. Not the outcome. I was where I should have been that Saturday in front of the Paris Opera House. Yes, our cries were not heard.”

“Enduring echoes call out from his past.
Time ain't for saving, no time's not for that.
Chasing false echoes like a lost legionnaire,
He waltzes on memories while he fades like a flare.”