- Claire Motte: You are with the company? Did you dance tonight?
- Rudolf Nureyev: If I had danced, you would remember.
- Rudolf Nureyev: I can live anywhere. Remember, I was born on a train. I feel I will never return to my country. But I may never be happy in yours.
- Rudolf Nureyev: I took the... feminine. That's what I did. Hard to say in English.
- Clara Saint: Try, Rudy.
- Rudolf Nureyev: Before me, male part... boring. Man only stands, does nothing. The women leap, jump, turn. The man...
- Rudolf Nureyev: [stands and poses with his arms in the air]
- Rudolf Nureyev: I ask why not man be like woman? I took from the woman.
- Pierre Lacotte: We were wondering if you were allowed to speak to us.
- Rudolf Nureyev: I decide to build the bridge. Rudolf Nureyev.
- Rudolf Nureyev: I went to a concert instead.
- Pierre Lacotte: A good concert?
- Rudolf Nureyev: Yehudi Menuhin. He played Bach. Not bad.
- Rudolf Nureyev: Okay. I am a peasant from Ufa. I'm boy born on train. I play princes in theatre, but I'm not prince. Fuck him. Fuck Paris. Fuck you.
- Clara Saint: You should apologise.
- Rudolf Nureyev: Little girl, if you like apologies, you with wrong man.
- Clara Saint: I decided to forgive you.
- Rudolf Nureyev: Forgive me for what?
- Clara Saint: Are you saying you don't remember?
- Rudolf Nureyev: [shakes his head]
- Clara Saint: I forgive you for being the most selfish man I've ever met.
- [First Lines - dialogue entirely in Russian with English subtitles]
- Interrogator: You knew.
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: No.
- Interrogator: You knew what he was planning to do.
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: No.
- Interrogator: You're saying he never spoke of defection?
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: The subject never came up.
- Interrogator: He never spoke of it?
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: Never.
- Interrogator: This is an attack on the Soviet Union.
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: No, It's about dance.
- Interrogator: Dance?
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: He knows nothing about politics. He's gone to the West because there he can dance.
- Interrogator: He could dance here.
- Aleksandr Ivanovich Pushkin: Yes, but... I think it's likely he had an explosion of character. That's who he is.