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

“Dancing is my obsession. My life.”

“Dancing can reveal all the mystery that music conceals.”

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

“I have some Russian friends. But probably only 10 percent. I don't hang out usually in the big Russian communities in Brooklyn and New Jersey.”

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

“I really reject that kind of comparison that says, Oh, he is the best. This is the second best. There is no such thing.”