"I mean New York City is the financial capital of the world. It's where all the money passes through, the Dow Jones, whatever, that's where all the money goes."

"We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?"

"I think that every year that the New York City Ballet is alive is worthy of celebration. Because otherwise the terrible thing is just that we take it for granted."

"However, the moral center of New York City, I believe, is the New York City Ballet."

"All the New York City Ballet does is hit beautiful home runs."

"Does any art have a practical value? People love to talk about how expensive a painting is. That's the only way we can talk about paintings in this century."

"The New York City Ballet is always about the realm of possibilities, the realm of what the human body can do, what the human spirit can do. And it's about listening, it's about listening to remarkable music and how we respond to that."

"The ballet makes us look at those bodies, it makes us listen to that music, it makes us wonder at the geometry, of the way they come together. The way that extraordinary space is controlled and given such emotional force."

"And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present."

"Does the New York City Ballet affect other places? Yeah, it lets people know they should come to New York."

"I think of the New York City Ballet as the Yankees without George Steinbrenner."

"Avoiding humiliation is the core of tragedy and comedy."

"What we're dealt with hopefully is two arms, two eyes, two legs, a head, a heart. The variations, the extensions, the possibilities of the human body, what that can do."

"People go to see beautiful paintings to see how much they cost. Wow. The practical value is that it shows you what the human spirit can do."

"Show business offers more solid promises than Catholicism."

"The life of a dancer is tragically short. What is remarkable about the New York City Ballet is that it makes us forget that. Because it keeps the ballet alive."

"And what would be great numbers in a Broadway show are now on stage of the New York City Ballet."