Quotes from Mikhail Baryshnikov

My mother had a son from previous marriage and her husband died in Second World War.

I miss horribly those couple of hours before the performance when you get into the theater and you see people.

I like to make my own mistakes.

I have made mistakes.

My life has been immensely enriched by gay mentors, colleagues and friends, and any discrimination and persecution of gay people is unacceptable.

In any art form, in Hollywood or in music, there is a handful of people who really, you know, move the envelope.

I'm an impatient person in many respects. I like to put myself in uncomfortable situations. It forces me to deliver.

I am a performer. I go on stage and make a fool of myself.

I cannot stand authority.

Nobody else in the world has a form like the Native American musical, and Americans should be very proud.

We lived, until I was 12 or so, in communal apartment with five different families and the same kitchen, in two little - my brother and me and my parents. It was hell, but it was a common thing. My father was not general or admiral, but he was colonel. He was teaching in military academy military topography.

When I'm alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR.

I am not the first straight dancer or the last.

I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.

Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.

I have been very lucky to work in so many new ballets, but that is what a dancer's work is.

When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint.

To walk across the street is a risk.

Dance is an ephemeral, a fleeting art. To describe this momentum, every movement on stage, in words is virtually impossible.

It's what's left in life, to work with interesting people.

I spend at least a couple hours a day in the studio, every day, whether I'm dancing or not.

I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.

I - you know, I'm not an actor.

People of art should never get married and have children, because it's a selfish experience.