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

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

“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 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 hated life in the Soviet Union. You had to pretend something you didn't feel.”

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

“The problem is not making up the steps but deciding which ones to keep.”