Margot Fonteyn Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

Minor things can become moments of great revelation when encountered for the very first time.

Margot Fonteyn
Great artists are people who find the way to be themselves in their art. Any sort of pretension induces mediocrity in art and life alike.

Margot Fonteyn
The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous.

Margot Fonteyn
If everyone knew how physically cruel dancing really is, nobody would watch—only those people who enjoy bull fights.

Margot Fonteyn
Jumping for joy is a very basic human reaction, and a child skipping down the street is simply an untrained dancer.

Margot Fonteyn
What a beautiful step! I shall never be able to do it.

Margot Fonteyn
When I left the stage door and sought my orientation among real people I was in a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world.

Margot Fonteyn
The first night is the worst possible time to make a hard and fast criticism: the baby never looks its best on the day it is born.

Margot Fonteyn
The world of dance is a natural world from which civilization has divorced many of us by making it appear remote — something reserved for the few who have a special talent.

Margot Fonteyn
Traveling carries with it the curse of being at home everywhere and yet nowhere, for wherever one is some part of oneself remains on another continent.

Margot Fonteyn
I need to have a purpose in life and for that I might sacrifice some of the luxuries that I enjoy; fortunately I am fairly adaptable. I try to be aware, flexible and unbiased in my thinking. If I have learnt anything, it is that life forms no logical patterns. It is haphazard and full of beauties which I try to catch as they fly by, for who knows whether any of them will ever return?

Margot Fonteyn
Genius is another word for magic, and the whole point of magic is that it is inexplicable.

Margot Fonteyn
There is no way anything of value can be done without some framework. It might well be that the framework is discarded or the rules opposed; that is not important. What is essential is that they exist so that one knows when one is in opposition to them.

Margot Fonteyn
Life offstage has sometimes been a wilderness of unpredictables in an unchoreographed world.

Margot Fonteyn
Ballet is more than a profession—it is a way of life.

Margot Fonteyn
Generally speaking, we are all happier when we are still striving for achievement than when the prize is in our hands.

Margot Fonteyn