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.

The energy doesn't end at the hands. I want such intensity that it feels like light is streaming from every finger.

I like attractive people who aren't so terribly aware that they are attractive... people who aren't afraid to roll on the floor and make fools out of themselves.

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.

You spend your whole life trying to get known and then you spend the rest of it hiding in the toilet.

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

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