The ballet is a purely female thing; it is a woman, a garden of beautiful flowers, and man is the gardener.

In ballet a complicated story is impossible to tell… we can’t dance synonyms.

God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it – from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.

In my ballets, woman is first. Men are consorts. God made men to sing the praises of women. They are not equal to men: They are better.

Most ballet teachers in the United States are terrible. If they were in medicine, everyone would be poisoned.

One is born to be a great dancer.

I don’t want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.