I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.
The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.
When a body moves, it's the most revealing thing. Dance for me a minute, and I'll tell you who you are.
Dancers are made, not born.
People dance at any age.
Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.
The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.
It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.
Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.
The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.
I am a performer. I go on stage and make a fool of myself.
I found that dance, music, and literature is how I made sense of the world... it pushed me to think of things bigger than life's daily routines... to think beyond what is immediate or convenient.
When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint.
I cannot stand authority.
I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts.
I'm a news junkie.
I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.
I - you know, I'm not an actor.
I think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.
I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.
People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.
I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.
No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that's my real vocation, and I have to serve it.
Nobody is born a dancer.
Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.
The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.
Dancing is my obsession. My life.
In the second part of life you get rid of stuff you've accumulated.
Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.
You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It's a Catch-22 kind of thing.
I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.
I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.
I'm a product of Russian culture, but I never felt it was my country.
My life has been immensely enriched by gay mentors, colleagues and friends, and any discrimination and persecution of gay people is unacceptable.
Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.
You open a section of 'The New York Times,' and there's a review or a story on a choreographer or a dancer, and there's an informative, clear image of a dancer. This is, in my view, not an interesting photograph.
I spend at least a couple hours a day in the studio, every day, whether I'm dancing or not.
I like to go to anybody else's birthday, and if I'm invited I'm a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don't care.
In any art form, in Hollywood or in music, there is a handful of people who really, you know, move the envelope.
I go a lot to see young people downtown in little theaters. It's great. If you start somebody's career, it's so exciting.
I read Russian literature a lot.
Everything I do, it's a bit painterly. I like being surrounded by objects, mostly on paper. I like the images. I like the painting. I like good photography. It's something that makes me an emotional connection, and I feel comfortable around it.
Working is living to me.
I don't drink milk, and I don't eat bread, pasta or rice. But I eat a lot of meat, chicken, fish and salads.
I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
I'm an impatient person in many respects. I like to put myself in uncomfortable situations. It forces me to deliver.
To walk across the street is a risk.
Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
