This has not changed: always like the first time, very, very nervous. But when the music begins, you are in the music, it's a sort of transformation. Your feeling for the music is greater and has nothing to do with your nerves. You go out of yourself.

Montserrat Caballe

The sound of a mother's voice expresses a feeling of intimacy, which has a truly magical effect on the listener.

Montserrat Caballe

I have many that wants to, let's say, marry me. But I always tell my mother that the day I have to ask myself, 'I love this man?' means I don't love him.

Montserrat Caballe

I feel like a person who has dedicated her whole life to the music she loves.

Montserrat Caballe

A soprano's voice is a little like a mother's cry, which is why it attracts all human beings.

Montserrat Caballe

I am living against all predictions. The doctors say I am a sort of witch.

Montserrat Caballe

It is the sensation of being tired but having a good feeling, you know, a sensation that you have done it honestly and given all your strength. And it is no matter that you feel like this, because this is what you have to do when you go into this sort of life. This is what I choose.

Montserrat Caballe

You see, God has blessed me - I don't know how else to say it - with a beautiful sound.

Montserrat Caballe

Drama if I sing, drama if I don't sing. What do you do?

Montserrat Caballe

The moment you say, 'Please, give me a reason for this', then you are being impossible and temperamental.

Montserrat Caballe

When a singer truly feels and experiences what the music is all about, the words will automatically ring true.

Montserrat Caballe

If I cannot sing, I have the impression that I no longer exist. I mean it. I mean that I am not physically there.

Montserrat Caballe

I am not a person who can do nothing. I get very bored.

Montserrat Caballe

I love to sing with my daughter. Audiences like it because a mother-daughter pairing is a curiosity.

Montserrat Caballe

You are born with a sound; everyone is, less or more. And this sound has to be developed. I am not talking about vocal technique; I am not talking about how to sing. I am talking about how to produce a sound.

Montserrat Caballe

I've received many awards, but I'm most proud of the ones for my country's music.

Montserrat Caballe

I realised in 1985, after sitting for months and being very down, that I have to move. I have to be busy. Because, otherwise, it is like being in a waiting room. And waiting for what?

Montserrat Caballe

Music is part of life. It is not the real life. I belong to that first: family, children. The important things.

Montserrat Caballe

I don't cancel because of temperament. I have had seven major surgeries in my life. I have had tumors. I have had two children with Caesareans; you don't just get up and sing the day after one of those.

Montserrat Caballe

I try in roles like Salome to sing earthily, but it comes out as sweet-earthy. You know, it's like when someone has a beautiful face: you can do what you want to it, but it's still beautiful.

Montserrat Caballe

Of course there are other prima donnas around. So many of my colleagues, younger ones, are wonderful.

Montserrat Caballe