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

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

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.

There is nobody more terrible than the desperate.

Im really bad at tests of any kind, so Im bad at auditions. I consider myself educated most of the time, but when Im under the gun, I just fail.

People get bent out of shape about the fact that when I was a kid, you could not drink out of certain water fountains. Well, the water was the same.

Trade your secrets and become who you are.

You do ill if you praise, but worse if you censure, what you do not understand.

Liberty is not less a blessing, because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it.

I got so many emails and text messages, my phone blew up because it couldn't handle everybody. It's like almost being at your own funeral because of the way the headline read.

Revenge leads to an empty fullness, like eating dirt.

I don't read music, which is a shame, actually, and I shouldn't even speak of it because it's embarrassing, but it's true.

The first book I ever wrote was in fourth grade and it was called 'Billy's Booger.' It was an autobiographical piece about a kid who was really bad at math.