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.

Sylvie Guillem

I was afraid when I came to the Royal Ballet that it would be easy to have everyone walking all over me if I didn't stick up for myself.

Sylvie Guillem

Ya Would Walking

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.

Sylvie Guillem

Time Watch Us

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

Sylvie Guillem

Change World Up

If we keep on destroying fish, there won't be any left. If the oceans die, we all die. It's as simple as that.

Sylvie Guillem

Yin Won Troy

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

Sylvie Guillem

Work Working Wit

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

Sylvie Guillem

You Thing Thin

On stage, you can bring all those strong emotions that you don't have the opportunity to live. You don't want to die for love every day, but on stage, you can.

Sylvie Guillem

Love Age You

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.

Sylvie Guillem

Young You Want

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

Sylvie Guillem

T Other Mother

I like creation even if the process is always a bit difficult.

Sylvie Guillem

Ways Way T

When I was 25, it was painful. I was getting out of bed in the morning and couldn't walk. But when you are young, you don't care; it will pass. But one year after another, it's like, 'Come on, give me a break!'

Sylvie Guillem

Morning Car Young

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

Sylvie Guillem

Art Way Tis

A drop of water can't stop a fire alone. But a drop of water, plus another one, plus another one, then you have the rain, and the rain can stop the fire.

Sylvie Guillem

Alone You Water

Walking in the mountains helps me unwind, but it also reminds me in a painful way that the real beauty in life is nature and animals, and that the human race, in all its arrogance, is intent on destroying it.

Sylvie Guillem

Nature Life Yin

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

Sylvie Guillem

Treat Tend Ten

I work hard to make a gift to the audience.

Sylvie Guillem

Work Work Hard T

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.

Sylvie Guillem

Time Men Age

I was not happy with myself as a human being when I was very young - I was afraid of people; I was afraid of talking, I didn't know how to express myself other than by being on stage.

Sylvie Guillem

Age Young You

It's true I have a side of me that isn't very adult. I can get very emotional about things. I can become crazy, act the clown.

Sylvie Guillem

Very True Things

I cannot stand unfairness.

Sylvie Guillem

Unfairness Unfair UN

Things that make me angry and sad, I cannot hide. It's not because I want to be a rebel; it's my instinct. When something touches me deeply, I really have to react.

Sylvie Guillem

'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.

Sylvie Guillem

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

Sylvie Guillem

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.

Sylvie Guillem

If I am out in the street or buying bread or taking a taxi, no one knows who I am.

Sylvie Guillem

I am a bit of a boss, even when it's about the composting. This goes here! This goes there! Don't do that! Maybe for the sake of others, I should let go a bit.

Sylvie Guillem

My reputation precedes me all the time, but I'm not the monster people think I am.

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 it's always adding up.

Sylvie Guillem

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.

Sylvie Guillem

I am stronger as a vegan than I ever was with meat and dairy.

Sylvie Guillem

I am very interested in nature.

Sylvie Guillem

I have learned a great deal from the theatrical side of Covent Garden. The Paris Opera Ballet is more concerned with technique. It's perfect. It's beautiful. It's well done. But it lacks the theatrical tradition that is so important in England. At the Royal Ballet, absolutely everyone on stage seems to be caught up in the plot.

Sylvie Guillem

If you start dancing too young, it can be torture. The bone is too soft, and it is going everywhere.

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 get there, that touches me a lot.

Sylvie Guillem

I am not a completely stubborn person. But I have views.

Sylvie Guillem

Dancers are not like movie actresses. People look at our bodies, not our faces. They only recognise me when I sign my name on something and they say, 'Ah yes, Sylvie.'

Sylvie Guillem

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 them don't even feel the fresh air. They don't see the light.

Sylvie Guillem

Fate is like a train. When it flies past, you can choose if you want to get on it or not, to say no or say yes.

Sylvie Guillem

One has to learn to say, 'Wait, there is a pain that is not logical. I will do a scan, and if there is something serious, I will stop immediately.' If the body sends a message, you have to listen to it.

Sylvie Guillem

When you are young, you can do anything, everything, and nothing at the same time. You don't have that kind of judgment; you just eat... like teenagers that need to feed. After a while, you know exactly what you are looking for, that sense of analysis comes to you when you start to use your brain.

Sylvie Guillem

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.

Sylvie Guillem

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.

Sylvie Guillem

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

Sylvie Guillem

I do not want an animal to die for me.

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 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.

Sylvie Guillem

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

Sylvie Guillem

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.

Sylvie Guillem

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'll know when to stop.

Sylvie Guillem

I judge myself severely.

Sylvie Guillem

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

Sylvie Guillem