Nobody can predict the future, but there is nobody in my generation who wants to be on the board of a symphony orchestra or an opera company and raise the kind of money that's needed. I think that the energy that in the 19th century went into opera is, in the 20th century, going into films. Films have that same over-the-top, overwhelming, high impact—all of the senses knocked out—and vast popular following, with stars who are larger than life. Well, that's what opera did in the 19th century.

In: Mark Swed, "For L.A., History's Knocking", Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1996