Quotes

You're 16, and you have the most incredible moment ever, and then you have to live and grow up and become the woman you want to be, the mother you want to be. Responsible. Human. I don't think a lot of people who were with Mr. B could grow up. That's why a lot of them became angry or unhappy. I magnify the little time I spent with him to people who knew him. That loss. How do you fill that? What fills that?

["Did people think she was marrying Peter for job security"]: "I was a ballerina before I was with him. Of course, if I wasn't very bright, I'd think, 'Oh, this is going to make my career better.' No. I knew when I married Peter that I had had my career."

"But just the other day she told me: 'You know, Mom, I think I talked myself out of being a dancer because of you. I thought I'd never be as good as you.' And I wanted to cry." --[On her daughter's decision to eschew ballet and become a straight actress]

"There's that devil inside. She already knows how to move to make everybody watch." --Rudolph Nureyev

"The light that she shines is a kind of starlight." --Robert La Fosse

My dad would have liked it if I'd become a lady wrestler. I'd be doing my homework, and they'd sneak up and flip me. Or they'd pick me up and throw me in the pool.

I never was much interested in dating,. To me, nothing, not John Travolta, not Mick Jagger, not even Luke Skywalker, is as fascinating as dancing.

["Will she ever open her own studio?"]: I love where I am. I love the aesthetic, and I'm happy to work for Peter [Martins] and know that we're on the same page. I also get excited about the fact that the students at SAB will have a chance to join NYCB. SAB was where I began, and in a way I've never really left it. I'm coming full circle.