You come in off the street, through the doors of the theater. You sit down. The lights go down and the curtain goes up. And you're in another world

At the ballet, you really feel like you're in the presence of something outside the rest of your life. Higher than the rest of your life.

I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives

The Senate is an unknowing world

Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

Robert Moses wasn't elected to anything. We're taught that in a democracy power comes from being elected. He had more power than anyone, and he held it for 48 years

The moment the curtain rose on that first ballet, I knew something wonderful and new had come into my life. I can still see the first scene. The ballet was Divertimento No. 15

The New York City Ballet is obviously speaking to a whole new generation and bringing it the same wonder and beauty that it brought previous generations

Ballet is sort of a mystery to me. And I don't want to unravel that mystery.

I deliberately made an effort not to become an expert on the ballet.

I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to write the life of a great man. I had zero interest in that. My interest is in power. How power works.

She loved the smell of books, the feel of books, the look of them on the shelf.

...the/ supreme end-result of/ early Gothic phallic forms/ is the skyscraper & the/ oil drill & powered/ compressor & pistons of/ great engines...

The world is filled with colours galore, each day is a colourful festivity.

Our nature is to desperately want to believe and to take what we believe is the quickest path there even against our better judgment.

It's easier to apologize than ask for permission.

Maybe if I prayed to Miss Marple, she’d hook me up with a clue

Humility is not something that comes naturally. But it is a cardinal virtue that should be pursued more than any other.

Those who do not stop asking silly questions become scientists.

I have had an experience which might perhaps be described as being shot down. At the same time, I call shot down only when one falls down. Today I got into trouble but I escaped with a whole skin.

Picture in your mind a sense of personal destiny.