A country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.

Divinity of art, it's such a mystery. How to convince people that no matter how much money you can spend on education and art education especially, that it implants, it directs a young person for the rest of their lives, and always in the most humane and positive and dignified manner.

Dances have a second and third life. You feel they are never ready. They always have a chance for another life.

To achieve some depth in your field requires a lot of sacrifices. Want to or not, you're thinking about what you're doing in life-in my case, dancing.

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.

I read Russian literature a lot.

I fell in love with New York. It was like every human being, like any relationship. When I was a young New Yorker, it was one city. When I was a grown man, it was another city. I worked with many dance organizations and many wonderful people. In the '90s, it became kind of a hard and unwelcoming city in many ways. It became conservative, like the whole country.