I cannot belong to a nonprofit organization because when you receive grants, you have to make such great compromises with your artistic plans.

I don't go to a gym, I don't do yoga. I don't do personal training.

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

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

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.

The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.

I was not extremely patriotic about Mother Russia. I played their game, pretending. You have to deal with, you know, party people, KGB. Horrifying.

No one is born a dancer. You have to want it more than anything.

No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

When I see people on the street, I look at how they walk. It's like a signature, a fingerprint.

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.

‎All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.

The apathy of the people is enough to make every statue leap from its pedestal and hasten the resurrection of the dead.

You had to learn at a certain age what sarcasm is, you know?

But it is important always to keep in mind that the danger of harming humans is not connected only or even mainly with telling secrets, there can be great danger in keeping secrets.

Taoism is the way of water. The most frequent element or symbol refered to in Lao Tzu's wrtings is the symbol of water.

I will not walk backward in life.

That's the story of my life rich or poor and mostly poor and truly poor.

Wake up early; it is great to live the mornings.

You must be passionate, you must dedicate yourself, and you must be relentless in the pursuit of your goals. If you do, you will be successful.

He who asks fortune-tellers the future unwittingly forfeits an inner intimation of coming events that is a thousand times more exact than anything they may say.