“For months, I slept at work, even though I had an apartment. I'd fall ...” — Bikram Choudhury Quote

For months, I slept at work, even though I had an apartment. I'd fall asleep on the floor at 4:30 A.M. By 7 A.M., I was up and ready to start teaching every class.

I bought a 1964 Bentley for $1,600 and re-built it over five years. When I drove it in Tokyo after that, it was the pride of the road. That car would command at least $150,000 today because 'Bikram' has restored it.

Why must everyone need a doctorate to teach? You can be a graduate from my institute in two months and for $11,000.

You go to Starbucks, and you know what you're going to get. It's the same with my yoga.

I grew up in Russia. We had a telephone line, but a load of our neighbours didn't. It became a shared resource for the whole apartment complex. People would come and knock on the door and ask to call their family in another city.

When I was 11, I realised that I did not have to live the life my mother had: school, marriage, children, apartment, summer house.

I've leased the apartment; my partner is going to come out here. But we're keeping our house in Chicago because real estate is a really good investment and also because it is just crammed with full of stuff!

I got a call from the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah had chosen Spanx as one of her favorite products in 2000. I had boxes of product in my apartment and I had two weeks notice that she was going to say she loved it on TV and I had no shipping department.