John Guare Quotes (24 Quotes)


    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 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.

    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.

    Show business offers more solid promises than Catholicism.

    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.


    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.

    Avoiding humiliation is the core of tragedy and comedy.

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

    the little children that their favorite song is Taps.

    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.

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

    Mel said, 'Just make it your own.' And she said, 'I'll kiss each several paper for amends. Aye, mira, here is writ 'kind Julia.' Mel and I just looked at each other - 'There's the show.'

    The cast, headed by Raul Julia as Proteus, was painstakingly multiracial. The idea was to have someone to represent every neighborhood in New York, ... great separatism ... we wanted to have the spirit of the city where we all have to live together.

    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.

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

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

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

    The weirdest thing was that we rehearsed in the exact same room we rehearsed in 34 years ago, ... When I went into the washroom and looked in the mirror, I thought, 'Who is this white-haired guy'

    And we remember it as it was when we first saw Maria Tallchief or Suzanne Farrell in it. And now it's Wendy Whelan, it's tomorrow's dancer.

    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.

    I believe that the New York City Ballet, its practical value is that it's about expansion of human possibilities. It's about healing. It's about food.

    That's why Puccini's work is so alive - because he creates such extraordinary pieces of theater. It's not dependent on personality.

    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.

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


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