Sylvie Guillem

“The best times are when the time on stage becomes much slower and the movement much bigger - in that case, everything seems to flow. This state does not happen very often, but when it does, it is a magic kind of pleasure.”

“When I watch dance, most of the time I just see a potential that is not there at all. I just see they missed the point. They just give us a tiny bit of what it could be.”

“I think it's going to be the most difficult thing to do, to leave the stage. But if you have no lucidity about it, it's even worse because you don't see the negative side of you still being onstage.”

“When you start, you have no brain; you are a kid. It's fine. But then I started to be scared. I was scared of judgment - not as a dancer, but as a person - and I was really uncomfortable with people. And it lasted for a very long time.”

“My father had the curved feet, my mother the legs, so I am a bit of both.”

“I am only interested in being famous for my dancing. For me, the concept of the sacred monster is only about the stage - it is not about image.”

“Dancers, you know, they have pain everywhere: ankles in the morning, or back or neck or ribs or knees or the muscles. You are never free of pain, you know.”

“I had no sense of having reached some goal because I was an etoile at the Paris Opera. My ambition, if you can call it that, was to discover and learn and be excited by what I was doing. If I didn't have that, I would find it elsewhere.”

“I had never a thought of training to be a ballerina. I was a normal child. I never dreamed of the tutu.”

“Some choreographers have been cautious about working with me.”

“Dancers should realise that they are really lucky. Dancing is not a job. It's people who are chosen. And you must realise that you are chosen. Sometimes I see a performance that makes me really angry - I think, 'Those people are lucky, and they don't realise it.'”

“People thought I had no feelings, that I was hard. But really, I was extremely sensitive to everything.”

“As much as I love my work, I do appreciate my rare days off. Even then, I can't afford to let the dancing go. I need at least an hour just to keep in shape, so wherever I am in the world, I'll grab the door or the furniture and do some serious exercise.”

“I am not nice. That has gotten me into a lot of trouble.”

“'Swan Lake' can be a nightmare. To make a 'Swan Lake' that is worth it, every single movement and breath has to be perfect. When you have an idea of 'Swan Lake' that is as high as that, it's almost impossible.”

“As a professional ballet dancer, I have to accept that weekends are about work. The notion of a leisurely break with all the buzz and excitement of a Friday night simply doesn't exist for me.”

“I was born with a different physical capacity to other people.”

“At school, either gymnastics or dance, it was the same. It gave me pleasure to move. And then, when I worked to achieve something new and out of the ordinary, it made me feel good. I felt I had surpassed myself.”

“Oh, I could have done more. I refused a lot of ballets. I said, 'No way, no way I'm going to do that.'”

“Ballet is hard enough when you go with it; when you have to force your body to do things, it is so much harder.”