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.

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.

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

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.

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

Our inner beauty is that Kingdom of Heaven that lies within. It is a fragrance and the signature of our soul.

It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it

When you're on the road a lot, you're in perpetual search of a good night's sleep.

When it comes to making decisions, I will come down on the side of Nebraska every time. If I have to choose between the White House and the farmhouse, I choose the farmhouse.

Do not feel badly if your kindness is rewarded with ingratitude; it is better to fall from your dream clouds than from a third-story window.

It is not by whining that one carries out the job of king.

A teddy bear is your childhood wrapped up in faded yellow fur, and as such, he commands affection long after he is out grown.

Happiness is not a sign that we are right with God; happiness is a sign of satisfaction, that is all, and the majority of us can be satisfied on too low a level.

I knew I had to keep him to myself, as I'd slowly begun to keep everything. We had secrets now, truths and half-truths, that kept her always at arm's length, behind a closed door, miles away.

As Peter Bogdanovich would say of Paper Moon: Ryan's wonderful in it, and he sat there and watched the kid steal the picture.