Quotes from Sylvie Guillem

I like creation even if it is a bit difficult. It is always very exciting.

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.

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

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

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

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.

To be free on stage, you need to have been disciplined.

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.

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

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.

Terrorism is not a small problem.

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.

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.

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.'

I work hard to make a gift to the audience.

When I was very young I was very shy but at the same time I was very open cause I was very curious so I wanted to try many things.

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.

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.'

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

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.

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

'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.

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

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.