I'm more confident now than I've ever been. As you get older, you have to be.

- Kiri Te Kanawa

I grew up in the New Zealand countryside. We didn't have television until I was 14, so sing-alongs were our only entertainment.

- Kiri Te Kanawa

I'm completely in charge of my own life now. Sometimes there's no one there to slap me on the hand and say: 'Stop being so bullish and bossy,' and th…

- Kiri Te Kanawa

I never had the influence of any other singer in my music, so I sounded like myself all the time.

- Kiri Te Kanawa

When I perform Strauss, it is as if the music fits me like a glove. My voice seems to lie in a happy area in this music, which is lyrical and passion…

- Kiri Te Kanawa

The word 'no' is a very good word in a singer's repertoire.

- Kiri Te Kanawa

I knew that I could be more creative onstage, to state my own case and deliver my own interpretation of the role much more aggressively than in the r…

- Kiri Te Kanawa

That's been my sort of aim in life, to never miss an opportunity.

- Kiri Te Kanawa

My energy is undiminished. Someone said to me the other day, 'Are you retired?' and I said, 'Well, I'm just trying to prove that I'm not.' There's so…

- Kiri Te Kanawa