Quotes from Rudolf Nureyev

A pas de deux is a dialogue of love. How can there be conversation if one partner is dumb?

Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.

There was simply from this quite early age the awareness that the only thing I wanted was to dance.

What is art? It is not just nature, it is nurtured nature. It is intelligence applied to what physical ability you have.

You live as long as you dance.

Of course I have a personal life.

My feet are dogs.

For me, purity of movement wasn't enough. I needed expression, more intensity, more mind.

When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it.

I really have to dance more often, and so I travel around. If I don't, I will crumble.

The main thing is dancing, and before it withers away from my body, I will keep dancing till the last moment, the last drop.

The only critic is a full house.

I really have to dance more often, and so I travel around. If I don't, I will crumble.

I don't care if Margot is a Dame of the British Empire or older than myself. For me she represents eternal youth; there is an absolute musical quality in her beautiful body and phrasing. Because we are sincere and gifted, an intense abstract love is born between us every time we dance together.

I approach dancing from a different angle than those who begin dancing at 8 or 9. Those who have studied from the beginning never question anything.

We danced with one body, one soul... For me, Margot is my family. She is all I have, only her.