Top 66 Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

I read Russian literature a lot.

I have the life of seven cats.

I don’t want to do anything Freudian.

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.

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

To walk across the street is a risk.

I’ve been hurt quite a few times.

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It’s a Catch-22 kind of thing.

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

People dance at any age.

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 am not the first straight dancer or the last.

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

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

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

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.

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.

I’m a news junkie.

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

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

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

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

I am not trying to do material which I cannot do full out.

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

I don’t go to a gym, I don’t do yoga. I don’t do personal training.

I have made mistakes.

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

I like to make my own mistakes.

I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.

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

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

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

Your heart is very much connected to your mind.

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

I get speeding ticket like everybody else. If the restaurant is full I’m waiting in line like everybody else.

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

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

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.

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 don’t drink milk, and I don’t eat bread, pasta or rice. But I eat a lot of meat, chicken, fish and salads.

Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don’t have to know more about them than they’ve given you already.

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.

Dancing is my obsession. My life.

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

I – you know, I’m not an actor.

A country like Belgium, or socialist countries in central Europe spend more money on art education than the United States, which is a really puzzling thought.

I was always interested in photography and other forms of art.

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

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

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

I’ve always said, ‘I am a selector, I am not defector’ – the first few phrases in English I learned. I said I hate ‘defector’; something defective about the people. It’s a bad word.

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 don’t see in myself any perfection.

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 think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.

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

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 fell in love with New York.

Film, theater and television always kind of scared me. I don’t ever seriously think of myself as an actor at all, and I don’t plan any film career or television career.

In opera tradition, when opera die-hard fans, there is a replacement of singer or singer wasn’t at his or hers vocal best, doing something, they boo. Especially now that they pay hundreds of dollars for the ticket.

Every ballet, whether or not successful artistically or with the public, has given me something important.

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.

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