Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotes

I didn't come to Hollywood to be subservient to anyone else's vision.

I don't need a critic to tell me I'm an actor. I make my own way. Nobody's my boss. Nobody's ever been my boss.

I never took a grant or borrowed a penny from anybody. It was partially because I didn't really know how to do that, but secondly, my pride never would have allowed me to. In the beginning it was about doing it the right way, on the merits of the music.

My grandfather, as I said, was industrious. He'd had a variety of jobs and decided sometime in the 1940s that he would never work for anyone. He was also a very independent man.

I believe in singing for my supper. I'll never accept a grant because what I do should be able to be founded purely on free enterprise.

I do love being solo because I can have more of my own creative input to every aspect of my career.

You're not a slave to those test audiences.

I don't much like being directed. I enjoy being allowed to play.

My father felt that children should make their own way.

Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath.

I don't have a formula to pass on. I always did it my own way. Even today, I hold my independence close. It's what's most precious to me. Passion. Risk. Tenacity. Consistency. This is my professional history.

I came out of UCB and, before that, punk rock, and the whole deal was you do it yourself. Get up and rent the space, get up and press your own records, get up and silkscreen your own tees, get it done yourself. That sort of self-reliance will only serve me. Any time I lose sight of that, my career suffers.

I chose to continue independent because, at the time I was being offered deals, it wasn't fitting into what I'd imagined. I decided to take a gamble on myself and see what happens.

Honestly, the thing that I have found to be most useful over a long career, or maintaining a long career, is taking back the power at some point and self-producing.

I've avoided situations where I wouldn't have creative freedom.

I want everything that I've worked for to go into my pocket. I want all my money to come to me. I'm very much hands-on with my career, and I like to do what I want in the studio - I don't like being told, 'do it this way' or 'do it that way.'

From a strictly business perspective, it's like, 'Even if you leave Eric alone, he'll do stuff. He puts his own album together, he gets his own gigs, he does everything on TV. Let him be, he's fine.'

At the end of the day, I come from a culture and an upbringing where you create your own path. There is no seat at the table for you? You create your own opportunity.

I'm 100 percent in control of my artistry, music, and finances.

I'm just an individual who doesn't feel that I need to have somebody qualify my work in any particular way. I'm working for me.

The people of America need personal responsibility and freedom, not dependency on the government.

The way I define what I do is, basically, I do whatever I want.

I wanted to express myself. I wanted to be creative and I didn't want to worry about someone bossing me around in the process. You have to struggle no matter where you are to get to where you're going, so I'm like, working it honey!

I had a job when I was 10. I started living on my own when I was 17 or 18. I've earned my own money; I've traveled the world. What would I rebel against?

I know that you're better off making your own products, not just waiting for someone to hand you something.