First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're very lucky and have said your prayers.

Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for - for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now.

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.

I don't have a past. I have a continuous present. The past is part of the present, just as the future is. We exist in time.

What are you waiting for? What are you saving for? Now is all there is.

Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policeman, always alert, always tense. But I don't agree with that because policeman don't have to look beautiful at the same time.

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.

Dancers are instruments, like a piano the choreographer plays.

Dance is music made visible

Storyless is not abstract. Two dancers on the stage are enough material for a story; for me, they are already a story in themselves

I still don't belong to anyone - I am mine.

You can never rightly judge another person's life because as a person, you only know the truth, with certainty, of your own experiences.

Nothing is more paralyzing than the idea of limitless possibilities.

It is better to look good than to feel good.

The student-athlete should control everything that happens. From figuring out what kind of a degree they want to what type of a program they want to play for, they should control it all.

I love California; everything is so artificial.

I swore I'd be in Chicago tomorrow, and made sure of that, taking a bus to Chicago, spending most of my money, and didn't give a damn, just as long as I'd be in Chicago tomorrow.

Never deny passion, for that is to deny Who You Are, and Who You Truly Want To Be.

The thing to do is to exploit the meaning of the life you have.