A biography for Mikhail Baryshnikovhasn’t been written yet.
“I want to do exactly what I want to do. I'd rather gamble on the box office than beg for a grant.”
“I've been hurt quite a few times.”
“Working is living to me.”
“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 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 am not the first straight dancer or the last.”
“Dancers are stripped enough onstage. You don't have to know more about them than they've given you already.”
“I kind of lost interest in the classical dance. I was very much interested in the modern choreography.”
“Choreographers use me as the old guy who still dances. Not that I put on white tights.”
“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 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.”
“Dance is one of the most revealing art forms.”
“Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.”
“I am not trying to do material which I cannot do full out.”
“I - you know, I'm not an actor.”
“I read Russian literature a lot.”
“People dance at any age.”
“Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.”
“I have made mistakes.”
“In '74 it was really a very gloomy atmosphere, I would say, to put it mildly.”