Top 120 Quotes & Sayings by Sergei Polunin - Page 2

If you ask about regrets, I normally don't regret. I enjoy everything, even if it's bad or good.

What made my mind go free is that I wanted to become an artist. As soon as I said to myself, 'Oh I'm not a dancer; I'm not an actor,' it made me so free to do anything.

In my head I want to do dancing as a hobby. I don't want it to be my job. I want to do it as a joy, not having to do not-very-good galas just to make my living.

I love movies and there's something close to me about James Dean - I always wanted to do choreography on him.

I wanted to go into film. But the press attention stopped me.

When I became a principal at the Royal Ballet it was my childhood goal, a dream and I became it at 19. And then I said 'what's next?' and I set myself a different goal at 19 to become an actor.

The problem was I didn't have a mentor. Nobody ever sat me down and said, 'That's how life is. You're going to have trouble here or there.'

I'm on good terms with Kevin O'Hare.

I didn't want people to think I'm a dancer. I'm much more. I'm a human being.

It always felt as though there was a wall between me and contemporary dance. I didn't know how to get into it.

A footballer in three weeks earns what a dancer makes in a year.

The bad press started to play a big part in how people perceived me, and I started playing on that too, which was a big mistake.

I never had any freedom - over my whole life, there had always been people telling me what to do. And when I did finally get that freedom I had no idea what to do with it - that was something I hadn't been trained for.

I wasted so many years just traveling and sitting in hotels, searching for things, not knowing.

It's important not to forget what parents did for you, what friends are.

I wake up and I do class straight away, so that gives me a free day to do things.

I do get depressed sometimes, I don't know why. It's since I was a kid and it's just part of my personality.

You live the life of a dancer. It is not your job, it is your life, and you have to love it so much to be able to take it every day for six days a week, sometimes seven.

I want to create a platform where dancers can be creative away from their day jobs. I want them to be able to express their joy, their personalities and to have fun.

In England, ballet is kind of closed. They are opening up a little bit, but it was always something not for the general public. So you don't get fame, like a football star or a film star. And if you don't get fame, you can't do other stuff.

You don't lose anything, in fact you gain a lot by having free-thinking people.

To think is to create and that's what's most important.

If I had the choice I'd be a boxer or a footballer.

I would like to do more projects involving artists from film, fashion and music. That's the spark for me.

Whoever thought of making ballet? I mean, what is it? It's so alien. You just look at people's behavior as well - people trying to show off on stage and people clapping.

I want to make people happy. I love kids and I want to help kids. And tigers.

I sort of played with the bad-boy thing, and I gave a couple of interviews where I said stupid things.

When I was a kid I always liked scratching myself - making shapes, making drawings, and I always thought I would have a tattoo.

I'm not fond of the idea of doing ballet for ballet's sake, because dancers get exploited and they're not paid well. They do it for the love.

When I worked with David LaChappelle, I was stimulated... He was explaining how he does things, how he works. I realized what an artist is, so I thought that's what dancers should experience.

Once you achieve something you just want to move on and achieve something else and keep achieving, like Alexander the Great - he captured one country and then he just kept doing it.

I'm not a bad boy now I'm living in Russia. London was great but there were too many distractions.

The Royal Ballet School looked after me very well, they were like my family, and the company gave me everything. But I was unhappy and I didn't know how to express it.

You know, it was only by traveling that I started to mature and to make my own choices, learn how to deal with people and understand how the industry works.

I went and got a tattoo of James Dean on my shoulder without actually seeing him in any movies.

Being a ballet dancer isn't cool. Football, boxing, hockey... they're cool. And you make more money.

The only family I knew was the Royal Ballet and I didn't feel I was part of it in a way. I moved up quite quickly so I didn't make many friends. You are on your own in that sort of place.

I would love for dancers to be treated better and for dancers to have support, for dancers to have managers, agents. This is the only art form that does not have a proper support system.

It's very important for humans to see dance, it's a language that everybody understands.

I started watching movies more carefully, watching actors - the way they act, the way the movie is filmed, just as a hobby in a way, but also something to progress to maybe in the future.

Artists are kids. I feel like I'm six years old.

I wish I could, instead of destroying things like that, I wish I could build, build, build.

Just let me live my life.

I normally don't regret. I enjoy everything, even if it's bad or good.

I feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger, and I don't practice as much as I used to.

As an artist, you have a choice. That gave me the freedom to do what I want to.

Fashion was very important to me because I could practice my acting skills, I could practice working with the camera, I could work with amazing photographers. It just gave me a different field of work.

I was very, very inspired [by movies].

I could only destroy to build.

The action heroes were very cool as a kid. You would compare yourself with them - Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

I realized what an artist is and what it is to be an artist.

I feel like I'm a kid again.

Now I want to become an artist, rather than one thing, like a dancer, or a movie star, or a choreographer.

If you open yourself as an artist, as a human being to this experience of growing, you grow anyway.

People are going to think what they want to think. I let them. You can’t control perception. It’s a losing game so I don’t play. I let them lose; lose themselves in their own fantasies of what they want me to be. A rebel, an angel, a romantic, a heart breaker, a boy, a man. Perhaps I am all of those things. Perhaps I’m none. But what I am is for me to find out, not to be dictated to me. It’s for me to know.

As soon as I said to myself, "Oh I'm not a dancer; I'm not an actor," it made me so free to do anything. It made me free to not rush, to not be scared of things and say, "Oh, I have no time," or, "I'm not going to make this or that."

What made my mind go free is that I wanted to become an artist.

I wish I could have built without destroying things.

I can one day do dance, and the next maybe do a movie, and then maybe I can choreograph, or work with different photographers for fashion shoots, or different art forms. You're never stuck. You're going at a different level. You're sucking in things, rather than closing. You're trying things out.

Not many people understand that, but if you open yourself to listening - you don't even have to exercise - you get better with time.