I am not an educated person. I didn't come up through a ballet company. I came up through burlesque. So I have a lot of inferiority feelings concerning my own lack of education, my entry into show business. I'm not a Baryshnikov. I'm not a Nureyev. I came up in vaudeville. Strippers. So I've always had these feelings. But I think they've also helped me.

Directors are never in short supply of girlfriends.

They may not know what I'm doing, but they know I'm doing something!

Dance expresses joy better than anything else.

In today's world, everything seems like some sort of long audition.

Mary Martin was Broadway's biggest closet king. Everyone thought Ethel (Merman) was butch and maybe a lesbian, but she wasn't. And everyone thought that lovely little Mary was Miss Femme, and she was -- except next to her gay husband. In other words, don't judge a star by her cover.

I think Balanchine and Robbins talk to God and when I call, he's out to lunch.