“When other little girls wanted to be ballet dancers, I kind of wanted to be a vampire.”

“I never conduct any of the ballets I conducted for the Ballets Russes, without my mind's eye being completely aware of the dancers.”

“You are a fridge with wings. We're freaking ballet dancers.”

“I never wanted to be a painter; I wanted to be a tap dancer.”

“When I was a little girl (but being raised as a little boy), what I wanted more than anything was to be a dancer. How I longed for it — the lights, the stage, the gorgeous costumes, most of all for the delivering grace of movement in harmony with a choreography greater than myself. Like a little Chinese and two left feet saw to that: I was laughed, bullied, or shamed out of every dance class I attempted.”

“I think classical ballet dancers dance on pointe because they're simultaneously touching the earth and reaching up to the skies”

“I want to be a society vampire, you see.”

“Girl, I don't want to fight,
I'm a little bit wrong,
And you're a little bit right.
I said, girl, you know that it's true,
It's a little bit me,
And it's a little bit you too.”

“At the time I started in ballet they were dancing 'The Spirit of Champagne' on pointe, in Paris. I thought, 'I don't want to dance the spirit of champagne, I want to drink it!”

“I don't want long hair, I don't want short hair, I don't want hair at all, and I don't want to be a girl or a boy, I want to be a yellow-orange leaf some little kid picks up and pastes in his scrapbook.”