I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.

The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.

In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.

Most ballet teachers in the United States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poisoned.

I am a cloud - in trousers.

My muse must come to me on union time.

I could never make a ballet by wrinkling my brow and concentrating. If you set out deliberately to make a masterpiece, how will you ever get it finished?

The choreographer and the dancer must remember
that they reach the audience through the eye.
It's the illusion created which convinces the audience,
much as it is with the work of a magician

Ballet is important and significant - yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure.