I loved tests because it was another form of competing, a healthy competition.

I'm thought of as a cool, unemotional dancer, but inside I'm not.

You're never more of an individual than when you're a happy team player.

I loved the stage not because it provided an escape from myself or my humdrum life but because when the curtain went up I could be whoever I wanted to be, and that was true freedom - to be myself.

Once I started dancing, I was not the spoiled brat or the rebellious child that I was as a child.

The arts are the hospitals for our souls.

I set as my goal to be the best dancer I could be. Not the most famous, or the highest paid dancer, just the best I could be. Out of this discipline came great freedom and calm.

On the other hand, I think it is wonderful for everyone to take ballet classes, at any age. It gives you a discipline, it gives you a place to go. It gives you some control in your life.

As soon as I hear music, something in me starts to vibrate.

When you get on stage, you can be anything. You are removed from reality in a way, the real world.

After I stopped dancing, I was unable to listen to beautiful music.

Basically my wife was immature. I'd be at home in my bath and she'd come in and sink my boats.

She met a dashing man —he was, a dash.

Does anyone act more like an overserious senior citizen with time running out on their chance for immortality than someone in their twenties?

I don't go by my caste, creed or religion. My works speak for me.

It would be really hard to get serious about anything political today unless it was a joke.

I tried to keep it secret, but the story got into the newspapers. It was more difficult for my family, who couldn't understand why the media wouldn't leave me in peace.

I loved all the world's mythologies.

I just really like to find my own ideas.

The prize for ultimate inefficiency goes to America. We have built in so many checks and balances that our 'leaders' are the most thoroughly hogtied of any on Earth.

These days, you have to have a gimmick to do the weather. You have to have an act.