Rudolf Nureyev Quotes

When I miss class for one day, I know it. When I miss class for two days, my teacher knows it. When I miss class for three days, the audience knows it.

You live as long as you dance.

For me, purity of movement wasn't enough. I needed expression, more intensity, more mind.

What is art? It is not just nature, it is nurtured nature. It is intelligence applied to what physical ability you have.

Technique is what you fall back on when you run out of inspiration.

A pas de deux is a dialogue of love. How can there be conversation if one partner is dumb?

The main thing is dancing, and before it withers away from my body, I will keep dancing till the last moment, the last drop.

I approach dancing from a different angle than those who begin dancing at 8 or 9. Those who have studied from the beginning never question anything.

We danced with one body, one soul... For me, Margot is my family. She is all I have, only her.

There was simply from this quite early age the awareness that the only thing I wanted was to dance.

As long as my ballets are danced, I will live.

I’m really alive when I’m on stage.

Of course I have a personal life.

The only critic is a full house.

I am still on stage. If you read Press...you would believe that I should be gone. But here I am doing it and DOING IT WELL!

I really have to dance more often, and so I travel around. If I don't, I will crumble.