I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.

My mother had a son from previous marriage and her husband died in Second World War.

I remember vividly seeing 'Tarzan' and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.

When a dancer comes onstage, he is not just a blank slate that the choreographer has written on. Behind him he has all the decisions he has made in life. Each time, he has chosen, and in what he is onstage, you see the result of those choices. You are looking at the person he is, and the person who, at this point, he cannot help but be Exceptional dancers, in my experience, are also exceptional people, people with an attitude toward life, a kind of quest, and an internal quality. They know who they are, and they show this to you, willingly.

No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.