The upheavals of adolescence silenced 'A Christmas Carol' for a few years. I became a firebrand atheist. Christmas - humbug! Too commercial! Then I became an agnostic. Christmas was a pro-forma affair basically a chore. Buy mother a book dad a new tie my brother and sister small gifts. Pretend thanks for the fountain pens and shirts I received.

Sure I could give advice I could say travel the world listen to music. But all I can really say is do something you want to do and do it well. And if you want to be a choreographer then you have to make dances.

For an actress to be a success she must have the face of a Venus the brains of a Minerva the grace of Terpsichore the memory of a MaCaulay the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros.

For an actress to be a success she must have the face of Venus the brains of a Minerva the grace of Terpsichore the memory of a Macaulay the figure of Juno and the hide of a rhinoceros.

I have the most respect for Zach Woodlee. He is one of my favorite - and one of the most capable - choreographers out there right now.

I would say that no film is apolitical. There are politics in all films. Any film that is anchored in a society any film that deals with humanity is necessarily political.

Choreography is mentally draining but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.

I've choreographed all of my movies.

The 6th of August in the morning we saw an opening in the land and we ran into it and anchored in 7 and a half fathom water 2 miles from the shore clean sand.

I always felt that a marriage works best at a farm... where you're together and everybody has clear-cut roles they have chores 'you take care of this' and you know. But it's hard.

When you're a father in a marriage you sort of become the mother's assistant. And you sort of get a list from her every day and you run down the list and it feels very much like a chore.

I've just been learning how to direct my own videos choreography doing costumes... every creative opportunity there is with my music I've taken.

I had actually been on tour in Japan and I had my own world tour that I was doing. I was used to doing a show for an hour so I was always learning choreography.

I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I gave it 20 years of my best shot.

Men can absent themselves from real life for their art more easily. Women are anchored into the quotidian business of getting food on the table making sure everybody's socks match the soccer gear is ready. I admire idealists but they're usually enabled by someone who holds the tether on their balloon who pays the bills and sweeps up after them.

Gradually it occurred to me that we spend a great deal of life asleep and that dreams are little narratives little stories. I thought 'Who's choreographing this stuff?'

When I began to choreograph and find my way pulling other artists' dreams out and changing music in a visual way there was still a part of me that had something more to say. There was still a desire to rock a stage and ultimately perform the eight count of my dream but there was a lot of insecurity there.

If a cow walked into this room I'd probably walk out. I could milk it but my dad never forced me to do a lot of chores like that mostly because he loved doing it himself.

There was a great complexity to my father. He was a devoted family man. But in the same breath he simply was not suited to an anchored life. He should have been somebody who had a backpack an old map a bit of change in his pocket and that was it - roaming the world.

Choreography is amazing. I'm still a dancer yet I transitioned into choreography then as a Creative Director. All of these creative elements are brought out of being a dancer. Directing is something that comes out of understanding movement and choreography. Directing movement is directing a dance piece.

I've created directed and choreographed for Lady Gaga since the beginning so 'Born This Way ' this was musically such an amazing evolution and such a brilliant record. So when she played it for me it took me a while to find out the visual interpretation that I could give back to her.