Sylvie Guillem

No one person can change the world, but one and one and one add up.

— Sylvie Guillem

Having limits to push against is how you find out what you can do.

— Sylvie Guillem

Choreographers tend to treat ballet dancers like kids they can manipulate.

— Sylvie Guillem

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

— Sylvie Guillem

The Palais Garnier was part of my childhood, my pseudo-adolescence, my life.

— Sylvie Guillem

Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer.

— Sylvie Guillem

If I do not feel comfortable, I will not look comfortable.

— Sylvie Guillem

When I am on stage, I feel completely free and just want to let go.

— Sylvie Guillem

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

— Sylvie Guillem

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

— Sylvie Guillem

There is a false idea that I am stubborn and do only what I want, but really, I am like a sponge.

— Sylvie Guillem

I could have done a lot of things on TV, but I don't want to be recognised in the street. I'm not…

— Sylvie Guillem

I think the only regret I have is not to have opened my eyes sooner to aspects of life like the relationship…

— Sylvie Guillem

Dancers are not like movie actresses. People look at our bodies, not our faces. They only recognise me when I sign my…

— Sylvie Guillem

Between what I know I can do and want to achieve and what the audience expects, it's a lot of pressure, and…

— Sylvie Guillem

There are things I cannot do, costumes I cannot wear. When I have taken stands on things, it is because I have…

— Sylvie Guillem

When you start, you have no brain; you are a kid. It's fine. But then I started to be scared. I was…

— Sylvie Guillem

I just know that when I go onstage, I give everything I have, not only my feet, not only my legs, not…

— Sylvie Guillem

At school, either gymnastics or dance, it was the same. It gave me pleasure to move. And then, when I worked to…

— Sylvie Guillem

The best times are when the time on stage becomes much slower and the movement much bigger - in that case, everything…

— Sylvie Guillem

I have learned a great deal from the theatrical side of Covent Garden. The Paris Opera Ballet is more concerned with technique.…

— Sylvie Guillem

There are some ballets you can do for a long time. With others, you have to know when to stop. Some are…

— Sylvie Guillem

Walking in the mountains helps me unwind, but it also reminds me in a painful way that the real beauty in life…

— Sylvie Guillem

You don't start by saying, 'Well, am I better than her?' Because that goes nowhere. Instead, all your work, your passion, your…

— Sylvie Guillem

If an idea comes and I am attracted to it, I will do it.

— Sylvie Guillem

Dancing pleases me. I hope I transmit that to others.

— Sylvie Guillem

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

— Sylvie Guillem

At the Paris Opera Ballet, they were always making choices for me.

— Sylvie Guillem

'Romeo and Juliet,' 'Manon,' 'Giselle' - they are not stupid stories. They have fantastic characters. They have a big package of emotion.

— Sylvie Guillem

If you are afraid of losing something, then you are dependent on it. If you are not afraid, then you are free.

— Sylvie Guillem

Dancers, you know, they have pain everywhere: ankles in the morning, or back or neck or ribs or knees or the muscles.…

— Sylvie Guillem

When I watch dance, most of the time I just see a potential that is not there at all. I just see…

— Sylvie Guillem

When a real artist creates something, it has to be a necessity, the only way he can say something.

— Sylvie Guillem

A performance is like a boat. You really want it to arrive at port. So when something goes wrong and it doesn't…

— Sylvie Guillem

I was not happy with myself as a human being when I was very young - I was afraid of people; I…

— Sylvie Guillem

When you improvise alone, you don't risk a lot, but doing an improvisation when you are two is even more difficult because…

— Sylvie Guillem

My mother really pushed me when I was young. I didn't want to go to dance classes, but for some reason, when…

— Sylvie Guillem

There's a picture of me as a little girl, and I'm waiting to go onstage, and I am biting the last bit…

— Sylvie Guillem

On stage, you can bring all those strong emotions that you don't have the opportunity to live. You don't want to die…

— Sylvie Guillem

I would have loved to work with Cranko. I love stories. Even though I like a lot of style - Forsythe, Maliphant…

— Sylvie Guillem