Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

You see an absolutely brilliant film later, as an adult, and you walk out thinking about what to have for dinner. Whereas something like Jaws winds up having a huge effect on me. If only my parents had been taking me to Kurosawa films when I was eight, but no.

There was a film class in my high school in Northfield, Minnesota, which was very unusual. I saw my first Buster Keaton film there, aged about 15. It made a gigantic impression on me.

I think that most of the best movies made in America in the 20th century were crime dramas, screwball comedies and westerns.

I think that if I had grown up and had been in show business and the movies twenty five, thirty years earlier, I think I would have made a lot more musical movies.

My parents were opera singers and voice teachers, so growing up, I admired musicians and dancers.

I watch an awful lot of old Hollywood movies - I'll devour anything with Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. My absolute favourite is 'Sunset Boulevard' starring Gloria Swanson.

My mum raised us on classic movies and a lot of musical theatre.

I was always a big fan of Charlie Chaplin movies. I love 'The Great Dictator' and 'City Lights.'

I started dancing when I saw Fred Astaire in 'Flying Down to Rio,' at approximately nine years old. Fred Astaire influenced me, more than anything, to be in 'show business.'

I love going to see the theatre whether it's a Broadway play or a Russian ballet company.

In the movies, I loved Errol Flynn whether he was playing a soldier or a pirate. I dug pirates. In fact, my first exposure to live performances was when my paternal grandfather took me to a D'Oyly Carte performance of 'The Pirates of Penzance' which impresario Sol Hurok imported from London. I loved every minute of it.

I'm really influenced by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly.

My family was never cultural in that we never went to see plays, my mum wasn't very into films.

Every Friday, my dad would rent three videos. Me and my brother would ask for something with guns or fighting, but my dad would say, 'Come on, think about it.' He'd choose more involving films like 'Pulp Fiction,' and at the end of the night, we'd agree that they were great.

Since I was a child I've loved going to the opera, theatre and ballet.

I grew up and I was weaned on the Marx Brothers. They were sort of my all-time favorite. My parents showed me their movies when I was very young. And as I got older, I became a Charlie Chaplin fan, and I love Buster Keaton.

I do like musical films more than big Hollywood films, especially those by Jacques Demi and Vincent Minelli.

The 'Western' is the only genre whose origins are almost identical with those of the cinema itself.

What interested me was dance - the way that it was constructed with time-space constructions, and that it was abstract. I always thought: 'Why couldn't theater be that way? Or an opera?'

I like a lot of classic movies, like, for example, 'Citizen Kane', James Dean movies, etc, etc.

I'm a child of that, the 'Bonnie and Clyde' to 'Raging Bull' period, you know. Those are the films that heightened my interest in acting and movies and everything.

I am always watching old films and trying to fill gaps in my knowledge.

I was brought up on American films.

My mother is a very big cinema buff, so as a kid, we watched a lot of Indian and Malay films.

My parents used to do these little film festivals in our house where we'd watch all the Marx Brothers movies, or Chaplin movies, and a lot of westerns.