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 BaryshnikovHe [Astaire] was not a sexual animal, but he made his partners look so extraordinarily related to him.
Mikhail BaryshnikovAlthough 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 BaryshnikovDances have a second and third life. You feel they are never ready. They always have a chance for another life.
Mikhail BaryshnikovWhen a dancer comes onstage, he is not just a blank slate that the choreographer has written on. Behind him he has all the decisions he has made in life. Each time, he has chosen, and in what he is onstage, you see the result of those choices. You are looking at the person he is, and the person who, at this point, he cannot help but be Exceptional dancers, in my experience, are also exceptional people, people with an attitude toward life, a kind of quest, and an internal quality. They know who they are, and they show this to you, willingly.
Mikhail Baryshnikov