Mikhail Baryshnikov

“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.”

“Soviet regime in a way deprived me from my childhood in my homeland, because my father was in military, and after the Yalta agreement he was sent to teach in military academy in Riga, and I was born then.”

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

“I miss horribly those couple of hours before the performance when you get into the theater and you see people.”

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

“The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.”

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

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

“We lived, until I was 12 or so, in communal apartment with five different families and the same kitchen, in two little - my brother and me and my parents. It was hell, but it was a common thing. My father was not general or admiral, but he was colonel. He was teaching in military academy military topography.”

“Nobody is born a dancer.”

“My life has been immensely enriched by gay mentors, colleagues and friends, and any discrimination and persecution of gay people is unacceptable.”

“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.”

“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 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 am teaching more. That is what I do best.”

“I fell in love with New York.”

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

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

“In any art form, in Hollywood or in music, there is a handful of people who really, you know, move the envelope.”