I have the wherewithal to challenge myself for my entire life. That’s a great gift.

Here’s how I learned to improvise: I played some music in the studio and I started to move. It sounds obvious, but I wonder how many people, whatever their medium, appreciate the gift of improvisation....

There’s this expression called postmodernism, which is kind of silly, and destroys a perfectly good word called modern, which now no longer means anything.

The necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you’re going to pay for it personally.

I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There’s an energy that comes through the release of...

When you’re in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.

With each piece I’ve completed I have worked to make it intact, and each of them has been an equal high. It’s like children. A mother refuses to pick out one as a favorite, and...

The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts.

I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me.

Creativity is more about taking the facts, fictions, and feelings we store away and finding new ways to connect them. What we’re talking about here is metaphor. Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if...

The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing.

I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

As is my wont, I did my research. I listened to all the recordings and I read everything about Bob I could find.

I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand.

I think that anyone who’s pushed to do the very best that they can is privileged. It’s a luxury.

A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.

I think people want very much to simplify their lives enough so that they can control the things that make it possible to sleep at night.

In terms of individuals who actually inspired me, very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it’s simply because I wasn’t that committed to geometry.

Any comic is a tragic soul. Comedy is one of the things that allows one to survive. Particularly if one has been in the process of separating off the emotions, it’s one place you can...

Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.

I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I gave...

It is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience.

Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that.

When I walk into [the studio] I am alone, but I am alone with my body, ambition, ideas, passions, needs, memories, goals, prejudices, distractions, fears. These ten items are at the heart of who I...

I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching.

It was not until I had graduated from college that I made a professional commitment to it. Frankly, I didn’t think it wise. I was my own interior parental force, and it’s very difficult to...

I don’t mean this, but I’m going to say it anyway. I don’t really think of pop art and serious art as being that far apart.

Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you’ll find out how big a prize you’ve won.

I would have to challenge the term, modern dance. I don’t really use that term in relation to my work. I simply think of it as dancing. I think of it as moving.

My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there...

I don’t think politicians should be allowed into power who are not familiar with their bodies, because that’s where our bottom line is. And I know that they would make totally different decisions if they...

Creativity is an act of defiance.

I’m not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn’t.

Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.

I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn’t mean I haven’t wanted it to be excellent.

You don’t get lucky without preparation, and there’s no sense in being prepared if you’re not open to the possibility of a glorious accident.

In those days, male dancers were a rarer breed than women. as they are still today, A good male dancer, one as strong as we were, was very difficult to come by if you couldn’t...

The formal education that I received made little sense to me.