Nureyev Quotes & Sayings

You live as long as you dance. — Rudolf Nureyev

I'm really alive when I'm on stage, — Rudolf Nureyev

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. — Rudolf Nureyev

I don't care if Margot is a Dame of the British Empire or older than myself. For me she represents eternal youth; there is an absolute musical quality in her beautiful body and phrasing. Because we are sincere and gifted, an intense abstract love is born between us every time we dance together. — Rudolf Nureyev

The only critic is a full house. — Rudolf Nureyev

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

When Nureyev appeared in San Francisco not long ago there were quite a few ballet fans who flew all the way from New York to see him. The mystics would point out how fruitless it is to go to see important people when our first priority is to see ourselves. We think we know Tom, Dick and Harry, but we really know everyone, including ourselves, only on the surface level. If we could see our real Self coming down the street, we would wonder who this beautiful, radiant, magnificent creature could be. We would not be able to take our eyes off him. — Eknath Easwaran

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. — Rudolf Nureyev

As a cameraman, I was paid to stand within a few feet of Yehudi Menuhin performing. I saw Rudolph Nureyev dancing. I couldn't believe I was being paid for that. — Michael Bond

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

Of course I have a personal life. — Rudolf Nureyev

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

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

I worked on 'Blue Peter' and 'Tonight' and lots of TV plays, filmed people like Rudolf Nureyev and Ted Heath, and ended up a senior cameraman with my own crew. I'd had my first short story published in 1947, and when my writing really started to take off I decided to go freelance, and eventually left the BBC in 1965. — Michael Bond

At age 14, coming to the U.S., all I knew was American Ballet Theatre, Baryshnikov, Nureyev, and some of the European companies. I barely knew anything about Balanchine. — Carla Korbes

I trained as a ballet dancer and fell in love with Rudolf Nureyev; I thought him the most beautiful creature. My mum had to break it to me that not only was he gay, but he was dead. — Jessica Brown Findlay

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

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

Ask Nureyev to stop dancing, ask Sinatra to stop singing, then you can ask me to stop playing. — Billie Jean King

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

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! — Rudolf Nureyev

As long as my ballets are danced, I will live — Rudolf Nureyev

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

While other girls swooned over The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, I worshipped Rudolf Nureyev and Isadora Duncan. — Celia Imrie

My feet are dogs. — Rudolf Nureyev

I am not an educated person. I didn't come up through a ballet company. I came up through burlesque. So I have a lot of inferiority feelings concerning my own lack of education, my entry into show business. I'm not a Baryshnikov. I'm not a Nureyev. I came up in vaudeville. Strippers. So I've always had these feelings. But I think they've also helped me. — Bob Fosse