Best 87 quotes of Mikhail Baryshnikov on MyQuotes

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.

Although I don't gamble in life - I've never played poker - I do gamble on stage. I gamble with myself: 'Can I do this?'

A theater is such a revealing form of art, such a transparent and good actors, they're such powerful individuals. I always kind of dreamt that one day I will open my mouth on stage.

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.

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

Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.

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

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

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

Dancing is my obsession. My life.

Divinity of art, it's such a mystery. How to convince people that no matter how much money you can spend on education and art education especially, that it implants, it directs a young person for the rest of their lives, and always in the most humane and positive and dignified manner.

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

Fundamentals are the building blocks of fun.

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

He is a male butterfly without the wings - the same kind of grace of a very young horse, so angular.

I adored my mother, and I will always have extraordinary memories about her and remember her, and she opened the doors for me to appreciate arts.

I always had a kind of strange relationship with New York City, with total love affair in the beginning then retreat during the kind of conservatives of politics and real estate and business came, and then I am again kind of fighting for the justice to the city, to open the city for the artists.

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

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

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.

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

I don't try to dance better than anybody but myself.

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

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. In the '90s, it became kind of a hard and unwelcoming city in many ways. It became conservative, like the whole country.

I found that dance, music, and literature is how I made sense of the world... it pushed me to think of things bigger than lifes daily routines... to think beyond what is immediate or convenient.

If your only dance experience is the Nutcracker, it will be a shock; hopefully shocking in a good way.

I gave away a lot of works for benefits and then people would also give me back.

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

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.

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

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

I like the most provocative and most surprising partnerships on stage. Intensity and surprise.

I like to go to anybody else's birthday, and if I'm invited I'm a good guest. But I never celebrate my birthdays. I really don't care.

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

I never liked dance photography; it's very flat, and dance photography in the studio looks very contrived.

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.

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

I read Russian literature a lot.

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 remember vividly seeing 'Tarzan' and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.

It doesn't matter how high you lift your leg. The technique is about transparency, simplicity, making an earnest attempt.

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

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.

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.

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

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

I want to see people dance, and I would like to guess what kind of people they are. I don't want to know the recipe for their pasta.

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!