Sylvie Guillem

“I have a strong sense of injustice and not admitting things just because that is the way someone says it should be. I need to understand. I need to agree.”

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

“I never dreamt of becoming a ballerina. I was just curious about it, it was something to explore.”

“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...”

“There are some ballets you can do for a long time. With others, you have to know when to stop. Some are very destructive. Forsythe's choreography pushes dancers to the extreme. That's why it...”

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

“There's a picture of me as a little girl, and I'm waiting to go onstage, and I am biting the last bit of nail I have left on my finger.”

“Working with a new style of choreography is always a period of adaptation.”

“When you do one more 'Cinderella' or whatever, what is there to learn? Every part in the repertoire has a good side and a bad side, and the more often you do the same ballet, the more often...”

“My mother really pushed me when I was young. I didn't want to go to dance classes, but for some reason, when I was there, I didn't want to come back.”

“While I enjoy it, I will continue to go onstage. While I contribute something, fine. I don't want to be dragging my feet. I don't want to become pathetic, but I think I will be lucid enough....”

“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...”

“Most producers who want you to dance are not looking at the long term. They see their evenings, the box office, whom they have to repay, whatever.”

“Animals feel pain and love and joy, just as humans. But in the industrialised meat, dairy, and egg industries, animals are denied everything that's natural and important to them. Some of the...”

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

“I would have loved to work with Cranko. I love stories. Even though I like a lot of style - Forsythe, Maliphant - I have this childish side that likes stories.”

“I can't have friends in every port. I have to work very hard and be very clear about what I want to do. I cannot just swallow everything I am told. I have to decide what I want to become par...”

“As a child, I was afraid of everything. My parents were shy, the kind of people for whom it is an ordeal to go and buy some bread or whatever.”

“I love nature like nothing else. Before I moved to Switzerland, my home was a flat in London with a garden. In those snatched moments away from dance, I did typical weekend things like pruni...”