I, sirs, for my sins have studied canon law at Salamanca, and I rather pique myself on expressing my meaning in clear, plain, and intelligible language."

In the "Grand Pas d'action" of the ballet's second act she demonstrated her phenomenal technique - next to her flawless placement and perfection of "port de bras" she performed pique turns with quadruple and quintuple pirouettes "en pointe", accented with double turns no less than four times in a row - a feat even modern-day Ballerinas have difficulty achieving.

With them he was on stage performing as a soloist in La Boheme and Pique Dame, among other performances.

She has also appeared in most of the world's other great opera houses, including Zürich, Amsterdam, Glyndebourne, London, Paris, San Francisco, New York and Chicago in such roles as Leonore, Sieglinde and Brünnhilde in "Die Walküre", Isolde, The Dyer's Wife in "Die Frau ohne Schatten", Clytemnestra in "Elektra", Kabanicha in "Káťa Kabanová", The Countess in "Pique Dame", and Larina in "Eugen Onegin".

In 1974, he began to rework his novel "Voleur", apparently from memory, as he had—in a fit of pique—burned the manuscript when he was 17.