Maria » Quotes (Movie)

Maria Callas: Book me a table at a café where the waiters know who I am. I'm in the mood for adulation.

Mandrax: This is the part of the film where you're expected to sing, Maria. So fucking sing. La Callas is expected to sing. No excuses, no diva-imagined sickness, not like Rome, not like Covent Garden, not like New York. Fucking sing!
Maria Callas: I will sing when I am ready to sing.

Mandrax: Have I told you I've fallen in love with you?
Maria Callas: That happens a lot.

Maria Callas: There is a very common theory that if you ask for something, it means that you want it. It is not true.

Maria Callas: I didn't marry Aristotle Onassis because he wanted someone he could control. And I didn't have a baby because my body declined the invitation to make another self. Because my body knew I was a tiger.

Aristotle Onassis: I was told it was a smart thing to do to associate myself with the Prima Donna Assoluta. So this party was a business strategy, but then I fell in love.
Maria Callas: You fell in love with opera.
Aristotle Onassis: No, I fell in love with you.

Waiter: Madame. Perhaps we can find you a seat inside.
Maria Callas: I'm not hungry. I come to restaurants to be adored.

Maria Callas: To be a possession in a cabinet is not my ambition.

JFK: You look pretty.
Maria Callas: Thank you, you look tired.

Maria Callas: Music is born of misery. Of suffering. Happiness never produced a beautiful melody.

Maria Callas: Why are you kind to me?
Waiter: Because you're kind to us with this.
(the waiter plays 'Ebben? Ne andrò lontana' at the cafe)
Maria Callas: (Shaking her head, her anxiety rising up) I never listen to my own records, please turn it off.
Waiter: This is my café, Madame. And this is what I listen to when I'm alone.
Maria Callas: You are not alone, please turn it off. I cannot listen to my own records.
Waiter: Why not?
Maria Callas: (her voice stern) Because it is perfect. And a song should never be perfect. It should be performed in that moment, differently to every other time.