Quotes from Mikhail Baryshnikov

I would like to go and dance in Palestine one day, with great pleasure, great pleasure.

Now there is in a way a renaissance of modern dance - suddenly, it is more respected and discovered.

I never liked dance photography; it's very flat, and dance photography in the studio looks very contrived.

Nothing is ever too expensive if it furthers the repertoire and artistic standards of a dance company.

The essence of all art is to have pleasure in giving pleasure.

Your heart is very much connected to your mind.

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.

I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.

Nobody is born a dancer.

I was very restless. I really wanted to be a part of a kind of a progressive society. I was fed up with these Communist doctrines and you were hassled all the time with members of the Party committee who were KGB, what you have to do, where in the West you can go or not to go.

Dancers are made, not born.

Running a company is pretty demanding.

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.

I am teaching more. That is what I do best.

There comes a moment in a young artist's life when he knows he has to bring something to the stage from within himself. He has to put in something in order to be able to take something.

I'm a product of Russian culture, but I never felt it was my country.

When a body moves, it's the most revealing thing. Dance for me a minute, and I'll tell you who you are.

I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.

You don't measure life by receiving awards.

Dancing is my obsession. My life.

You see, dancers are quite mature people because they start performing so early. They become professionals when they start to take everyday classes.

In the second part of life you get rid of stuff you've accumulated.

Although I don't gamble in life - I've never played poker - I do gamble on stage. I gamble with myself: 'Can I do this?'

Dances have a second and third life. You feel they are never ready. They always have a chance for another life.