"If it were all pretense, it would hardly be worth watching--or worth studying as a technical accomplishment, a thing well-made. Some do, I know, and they sit in their boxes waiting to be seen in their best gowns more than to hear an aria ... I won't deny that they exist, and that they lined our pockets. But when an actress rises to fame, when she breaks through their contempt and tears at their hearts, she does it because they recognize something real in her, even if she's never been a queen or murdered her lover or died mad and alone. She knows what grief is, and she knows what fear is, and those are real. That's how I built my fame, although I'm only a good singer, and not a great one--because when they saw me play a hero or a goddess, they could see me glorying in my triumph or crushed by my despair."