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Nobody is born a dancer.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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Divinity of art, it's such a mystery. How to convince people that no matter how much money you can spend on education and art education especially, that it implants, it directs a young person for the rest of their lives, and always in the most humane and positive and dignified manner.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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I don't go to a gym, I don't do yoga. I don't do personal training.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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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
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We're trying to stretch our muscles creatively. It gives us so much more freedom.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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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.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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I think art education, especially in this country, which government pretty much ignores, is so important for young people.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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People dance at any age.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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I cannot stand authority.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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Creative Artists Agency put together a project of extraordinary mediocrity and colossal stupidity. Otherwise, it was great.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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Acting is not my language at all.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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Your body actually reminds you about your age and your injuries - the body has a stronger memory than your mind.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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When I'm alone, I work sometimes with music, sometimes without and sometimes just listening to NPR.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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What do dancers think of Fred Astaire? It's no secret. We hate him. He gives us a complex because he's too perfect. His perfection is an absurdity. It's too hard to face.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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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
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The Russian people get so insanely close to each other as friends. Their lives are interrelated so much on an everyday basis.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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To walk across the street is a risk.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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I read Russian literature a lot.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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Working is living to me.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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In '74 it was really a very gloomy atmosphere, I would say, to put it mildly.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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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
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I am not the first straight dancer or the last.
Mikhail Baryshnikov
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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
