Maksim Chmerkovskiy

“I would love to be a dad. For the longest time, I've wanted kids, but you have to have the right setup, right?”

“I spent my entire childhood with my father. I started my first business at 16, and we became business partners. He's not just a mentor and somebody that I look up to, but he's also someone whom I took work ethic and determination and all of those qualities from.”

“I'm an emotional person. I may not seem that way, but I'm an emotional person.”

“As a dancer, obviously, we are all inspired by Michael Jackson, and I always looked up to Gene Kelly. He was a bigger version of Fred Astaire, and he was amazing as well.”

“I never wanted to be a dancer. I was too big, I was too slow. I remember not liking it. Later on, when I came to the United States, I realized I had a skill, and when you come to this country, you realize if you have a skill and a determination, you can do anything.”

“I spent a lot of time taking acting lessons... Actors have no inhibitions, and I'm inhibited by everything. To be able to make fun of yourself is a skill and a liberating experience.”

“Dancing has been in us, in people, since the Neanderthal age. There's something about moving, something about interpreting yourself to the music, that's attractive, that's interesting, that's intriguing, and everyone wishes they could do that.”

“I would definitely want kids. Would they be dancers? I dunno. That's up to them. If they show interest, I will push them do the best. I was not brought up in a dancer's family. I was brought up in a family where the mentality was whatever you do, you gotta try to be the best at it.”

“When I first joined 'Dancing with the Stars,' I did not want to do it. It's not what I like, it's not what I believe in... the judges are fake, this is fake, that is fake... there is not a lot of reality.”

“Listen, I'm a sweet guy. I'm just intense at work. I have nothing but the end result in mind. My entire career has been like that.”

“I look for someone whose upbringing was somewhat similar to mine because they can understand me - love for the family and everything else. You see someone's relationship with their parents, and you realize what that person's going to be like as a parent.”

“My grandma and my mom are not happy about the fact that I am still a bachelor. It's not on my mind that I have to find the person I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. It will happen the way it's going to happen.”

“Do you know what a showmance is? It is like being at a summer camp when you're a teenager. You spend summertime away from your home. When you spend three months very closely with someone at a particular place, it is like a summer love. You have no choice but to get involved with that person.”

“There's no better exercise than dancing. 'Dancing with the Stars' is amazing. I used to take it for granted, but the three months you spend on the show, with that grueling regimen, you just shed weight. You can eat anything you want and it doesn't stick.”

“I am a hopeless romantic who falls in lust and gets in trouble. I love my work and am very productive, yet I always find time to play.”