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

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

People dance at any age. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Now there is in a way a renaissance of modern dance–suddenly, it is more respected and discovered. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

I would like to go and dance in Palestine one day, with great pleasure, great pleasure. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

Nothing is ever too expensive if it furthers the repertoire and artistic standards of a dance company. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

Just sit and open your eyes and open your heart. It’s dance theater. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

You can be totally involved, you could admire just the shape of or you could be totally emotionally mushed up into the dance. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

I never liked dance photography; it’s very flat, and dance photography in the studio looks very contrived. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Dance is one of the most revealing art forms. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

When a body moves, it’s the most revealing thing. Dance for me a minute, and I’ll tell you who you are. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Dancing is my obsession. My life. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

In the second part of life you get rid of stuff you’ve accumulated. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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?’ — Mikhail Baryshnikov

You don’t measure life by receiving awards. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

I am a performer. I go on stage and make a fool of myself. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

What brought me to the theater, no matter you’re a Jew or a Russian or Armenian or Latvian, are suddenly illuminated by stage light and one beautiful image of dance. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

I miss horribly those couple of hours before the performance when you get into the theater and you see people. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

It’s what’s left in life, to work with interesting people. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

When I’m alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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

You cannot be happy with your family while being personally unhappy with your work. It’s a Catch–22 kind of thing. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

He is a male butterfly without the wings–the same kind of grace of a very young horse, so angular. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

Obviously, the young dancers lack a certain air of maturity. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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. — Mikhail Baryshnikov

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