Lesley Garrett Quotes

I've worked with some great orchestras and amazing classical musicians, but I don't like the conceptualization of classical music as an elitist form of art.

The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it's much, much more diluted.

I like the elitism of the art world. I think art for the people is a terrible idea.

When I was growing up, there was a feeling in one's living room as much as in one's local gallery that a little elitism was good for the soul.

I think there are people who use classical music to say, 'I am better than you, because I know all the rules and you don't.' You're not allowed to have fun or entertain.

Country music, the music of the white rural working class, has often been mocked by elitists whose understanding of power and art was shaped at expensive private schools.

I have loads of issues with the way classical music is presented. It has been too reverential, too 'high art' - if you're not in the club, they're not going to let you join. It's like The Turin Shroud: don't touch it because it might fall apart.

I'd like to explode a few myths about what we call classical music. It's not high art for the titillation of a chosen few.

'Posh' is not really political. I didn't want to aim a brickbat at the system. Or to bash Old Etonians. It was always the class and privilege aspect of that world that I was most drawn to. There is something endlessly fascinating about imagining something you could never be involved in.

Academic and aristocratic people live in such an uncommon atmosphere that common sense can rarely reach them.

… an army of Gatsbys wanting not to overturn the social order but only to belong to the upper crust.

I grew up in the Bronx. I used to remember going to all these fancy stores in Manhattan to run errands or whatever, and I felt intimidated, like they did not talk to me because I was from the Bronx. I never want anyone to be intimidated by fashion. Fashion is fun or, at least, should be.

In England, unless I am mistaken, I think some of the politicians who love classical music and opera are a bit loath to be seen there in case people think it is elitist. That is a real shame because it also means we are not allowing our politicians a hinterland that an earlier generation, a Denis Healey, would have taken for granted.

I never like the TV or movie Harvard characters. The fact of the matter is that most people who go to Harvard went to public schools and weren't in final clubs. I didn't even know that final clubs existed until I was a senior.

I really disliked Philadelphia society - really, deeply disliked it. I spent a lot of my teenage years writing poetry attacking it.

I think that theater is the closest medium to music. It's very pure. It's for the elite of the society. It's not for everyone in the society.

The art house is an elitist idea.

Yeah, it is particularly upsetting to be called, whatever it was, sneery, or a snob, given the background I have.

But the truth is the meritocracy is a lie. Those born into wealth and privilege will always be able to game the system for their own benefit and their children's own benefit.

As the White House doors are slammed in the face of the average American, I want to know if they will still swing wide open for Hollywood and the liberal elite. Will Jay-Z and Beyonce still get to stop by for a tour, or will they be denied like those who aren't rich and famous?

I don't like class distinction, and there is far too much of that in England.

All serious elite institutions, from the great London clubs to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, have always made sure that most people can't get into them. That's the point.

There are still Negro elites. Many of them are obviously much richer, and perhaps a little more integrated into what remains a white power structure. But those old rituals from the social clubs, to the broadly segregated white and black schools, to an obsessive interest in ancestry, all of that does still exist. Look: we are a class-bound society.

It was hugely helpful to me, being South African. I have never felt uncomfortable in posh society because I don't see what it is that I'm meant to be bowing the knee about.

I think me and Macklemore exist in two different worlds.