On Inspiration

Woman is the goddess. the poetess, the muse. That is why I have a company of beautiful girl dancers. I believe that the same is true of life, that everything a man does he does for his ideal woman. You live only one life and you believe in something and I believe in a little thing like that.

-George Balanchine

(Pictured above is Balanchine dancing the role of Don Quixote in his ballet of the same name, with his own “elusive muse”, Suzanne Farrell.)