Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

"I am not the first straight dancer, nor the last."

"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 out."

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

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

(on the late Fred Astaire) "No dancer can watch him and not know that all the rest of us should be in a different business. Astaire is remote. It`s as if he were in an incubator, breathing his own air. His perfection is like crystal: you can see through it. It`s hopeless to try and imitate him."

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

"No matter what I try to do or explore, my Kirov training, my expertise, and my background call me to return to dancing after all, because that`s my real vocation, and I have to serve it."

"Dancers are made, not born."

"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. Then you arrive in the States and it is $150 to go to an opera. Ridiculous. We have so much young talent on the streets, but because everything is commercial they finally drift away from their dream of their life." - The Daily Telegraph, 09/02/2004

"That somebody has the vision to put a few steps together and make a dance out of it, there is already a certain power implanted. My job is much easier - it`s just to put a light in it." - The Daily Telegraph, 09/02/2004

Oh, that`s nonsense. Sex symbol? A cup of tea will do it. Sex is overrated. Absolutely. Forget about it. A good golf game, a nice conversation with friends, will do better. - On what it is like to be an international sex symbol.

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.

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

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

Working is living to me.

Dancing is my obsession. My life.

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.

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

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

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

No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

To walk across the street is a risk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don`t have to know more about them than they`ve given you already.

I am not the first straight dancer or the last.

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