George Balanchine

“Put a man and a woman on a stage and you have a story; a man and two women, a plot.”

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

“There are no mothers-in-law in ballet.”

“See the music, hear the dance.”

“Ballet is woman.”

“The choreographer and the dancer must remember that they reach the audience through the eye. It's the illusion created which convinces the audience, much as it is with the work of a magician.”

“What is important is to move.”

“Most ballet students are not aware of the music something is danced to. They never hear the music.”

“The mirror is the teacher.”

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

“First comes the sweat. Then comes the beauty if you're lucky and have said your prayers.”

“Art is the signature of civilizations.”

“Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.”

“Dance is music made visible.”

“I don't want people who want to dance, I want people who have to dance.”

“Why are you stingy with yourselves? Why are you holding back? What are you saving for—for another time? There are no other times. There is only now. Right now.”

“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.”

“Someone once said that dancers work just as hard as policemen, always alert, always tense. But I don't agree with that because policemen don't have to look beautiful at the same time.”