I don't like crying. I'm a country boy, and we're the product of our upbringing. As a boy, I was told that men don't cry.
— Andrea Bocelli
Stage fright is my worst problem.
I have always loved music and singing, and I am open to listen to any type of music. Regardless of my mood, my heart is always set racing when I listen to opera. When I decide which music I want to hear, my choice is almost invariably an opera recording.
Listen to what others tell you about your voice. If you're only singing to please yourself, you might as well just sing under the shower. But if you're singing for others, you are reliant on them to ask you to sing.
The most widely criticised singers in the history of opera, Maria Callas and Franco Corelli, happen also to be the best singers. I am honoured for being part of their group.
The activity of a singer that sings opera is similar to that of an athlete.
I was an agnostic until I realized that I had to choose between God and fate. The idea that humanity and nature are the result of fate was not convincing at all. I find the presence of God everywhere.
Because, in opera, I have to sing for people that are very far from me, instead of, when I sing a song, I try to imagine to sing like in an ear of a child.
I have big, big stage fright.
It's true that I suffered a lot, especially when I was younger.
Some years ago I gave a concert in the mountains with snow all around, and that was much colder.
All that counts in life is intention.
My life experience has taught me nothing happens by chance. Even the idea of the ball in a roulette game: it's not chance it ends up in a certain place. It's forces that are at play.
I have had the good fortune of being able to sing with many of the finest voices in the world, and for someone who loves voices as I do, this is an enormous privilege.
Let me say that I've never thought to conduct because the conductor has to think to the music before the orchestra. And the orchestra comes later. For me, it's terrible.
A career is like a house: it's made of many bricks, and each brick has the same value, because without any one of them, the house would collapse.
I consider the voice a gift from the heavens, and as all the gifts from the heavens, they must be used, but the minute that the heavens call it back then of course I will stop.
I studied to be a lawyer, and after that I did something, obviously, completely different. With change, you learn something. If you do the same thing over and over again, you never learn anything.
Even in the most beautiful music there are some silences, which are there so we can witness the importance of silence.
Destiny has a lot to do with it, but so do you. You have to persevere, you have to insist.
I think I don't want to use drugs or medicine, so nothing. The only way is to go on stage and to hope.
Now I'm more sure and I feel myself more comfortable singing.
When you sing and people want that you sing, then you can hope to be great.
A voice is very intimate. It's something of your own. So there's always this fear, because you feel naked. There's a fear of not reaching up to expectations. As you become more famous, people come and expect to hear something extraordinary, so you don't want to disappoint them. I feel this sense of responsibility.
To sing a duet together means sharing with someone both the pleasure and the responsibility of making music for an audience which is there to feel enjoyment through music.
I have trouble with modern art. But in general, all art forms fascinate me - art is the way human beings express what we can't say in words.
When I was very young, I started trying to sing like the great tenor Mario Lanza; my family used to play his records. We all learn best by imitating others.
Fatherhood is a very natural thing; it's not something that shakes up my life but rather it enriches it.
When I sing for myself, I sing in a more free, athletic way. When I face an audience, there is always some fear that makes me put the brakes on a bit.
Because I practice often with my children at home.
I began when I was a child, because I was born and grew up in a little village. And many people ride the horses. So, it was a big - it has been a big passion for me.
I've always known that I was born to sing, ever since I was a child.
Often, I went in love with some friends in school. And, no, I suffered. Only later, things went better.
You can be great only if it is your destiny.
