In some situations I was difficult, in odd moments impossible, in rare moments loathsome, but at my best unapproachably great.
Ballet is the fairies' baseball.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote humorously likens ballet to a sport, suggesting it has its own grace and excitement akin to baseball.
Oscar Levant's quote, 'Ballet is the fairies' baseball,' creatively compares ballet, a dance form often associated with grace, elegance, and fantasy, to baseball, a dynamic sport praised for its energy and competition. This innovative metaphor emphasizes the joy and spirited nature of ballet, suggesting that, like baseball, it requires skill, dedication, and brings pleasure, but in a whimsical, ethereal way that is unique to the world of fairy tales.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
You might use this quote at a ballet recital to highlight the joy and playful nature of the performance.
More from Oscar Levant
All quotes →When I appeared before the draft board examiner during World War II, he asked me if I thought I could kill. "I don't know about strangers," I replied, "but friends, certainly."
I have no trouble with y enemies. But my god damn friends... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night.
I'm a study of a man in chaos in search of frenzy.
I envy people who drink. At least they have something to blame everything on.
Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I.
Similar quotes
When you write, you want to get rid of the world, don’t you? Of course you do. When you’re writing, you’re creating your own worlds.
The goddam movies. They can ruin you. I'm not kidding
Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God.
A poem needs understanding through the senses. The point of diving in a lake is not immediately to swim to the shore; it’s to be in the lake, to luxuriate in the sensation of water. You do not work the lake out. It is an experience beyond thought. Poetry soothes and emboldens the soul to accept mystery.
The whole Mediterranean, the sculpture, the palm, the gold beads, the bearded heroes, the wine, the ideas, the ships, the moonlight, the winged gorgons, the bronze men, the philosophers - all of it seems to rise in the sour, pungent taste of these black olives between the teeth. A taste older than meat, older than wine. A taste as old as cold water.
The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.