Kelli O'Hara

“I've been singing since I was nine or ten.”

“My father named me Kelli because 'Kelli O'Hara' just sounded so Irish.”

“Everyone's story is different, and we can't really be inside them.”

“I grew up on a farm.”

“'South Pacific' has a definite heaviness that people don't realize. It's got a seriousness and a message.”

“Corned beef and cabbage - that's our favorite holiday meal when all the O' Haras gather around the table.”

“My great-grandfather, Peter O'Hara, was born in Ireland, I believe, in County Clare. His father, my great-great-grandfather, had actually come to America a generation before when times were very bad in Ireland. He worked in the Pennsylvania area and did well with horses and farming.”

“With a revival, you're compared to somebody else.”

“When you're pregnant, things - at least for me - get very sincere and very wholesome, and it's about family, and singing becomes about warmth.”

“The hardest role that I've ever tried to play was Clara Johnson in 'Light in the Piazza' at Lincoln Center. It was the least fun I've ever had, but the most beautiful experience I've ever had. I could not understand her. I could not put my feet in her shoes. I came home every night, and I was depressed.”

“I don't ever sing classically when I am singing a contemporary score - I kind of try to fit in whatever needs to happen.”

“You breathe fast when you're scared.”

“I was able to do concerts all the way up until two weeks before I had the baby; I thought I was stopping a month ahead, but he was three weeks early.”

“Every part has its relief when I'm done with it.”

“I loved to sing and I loved to act, and I didn't want to continue opera because I wanted to act.”

“To play a character is to inhabit the world and the life of that character.”

“I don't mind talking about my family and how to balance it all. But, in today's world, we should probably be asking both women and men about work and family and how to balance the two.”

“When I've done TV and film, when it's offered to me, I loved doing it, and I would do it again, but the ins and outs of auditioning is - that's time away from my kids.”

“I think it can be a good idea to know what you do well and use that to open the door for yourself. Once you open the door, close it behind you, and start to make changes.”

“My degree was in opera.”