Quotes from Mikhail Baryshnikov

Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.

In '74 it was really a very gloomy atmosphere, I would say, to put it mildly.

Be. Good. To yourself, to other people, to everything you do. It's a norm of life by which people should try to live. Don't waste time. Be interesting and interested.

I feel very uneasy with a lot of aspects of the Russian life and the Russian people.

I cannot draw to save my life, and I'm not a big art scholar, but I worked with many designers throughout my career - in theater, in dance, costume designers, set designers, and I have a lot of artist friends and I do photography, and I think it's kind of in my life.

I was never like, "collect, collect," like people who go to auctions. I never spent a serious amount of time because I don't have any time!

I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

Choreographers use me as the old guy who still dances. Not that I put on white tights.

Astaire was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.

My father was a Party member and he was a pretty high rank military officer under the colonel, junior colonel, I don't know the term. He was a total Stalinist. A bit with a streak of anti-Semitism and very shrewd man, a very kind of nervous man.

I've been hurt quite a few times.

I know when I am on stage and I'm kind of on the right track - hopefully most of the time. But a lot of time I'm not.

Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.

The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.

It's weird when you see pieces of choreography that were done for you 15 or 20 years ago and now they are being done by another dance company.

I think I got disappointed over the years about New York, about the States. You know, sometimes you go and visit Europe and see good old socialism in its good part! You see public concern about art, and young people's participation and young faces in the audience.

I fell in love with New York.

I fell in love with New York. It was like every human being, like any relationship. When I was a young New Yorker, it was one city. When I was a grown man, it was another city. I worked with many dance organizations and many wonderful people.

No one is born a dancer. You have to want it more than anything.

To achieve some depth in your field requires a lot of sacrifices. Want to or not, you're thinking about what you're doing in life-in my case, dancing.

The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.

Obviously, the young dancers lack a certain air of maturity.

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.

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.