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

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

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

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