Margot Fonteyn Quotes

• 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

  Life, Dance, Being Yourself

  "Margot Fonteyn : Autobiography‎" by Margot Fonteyn, (p. 81), 1975.

  177 Copy quote

• Take your work seriously, but never yourself.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Women, Self Esteem, Self Respect

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  84 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Attitude, Self Esteem

  "Running on Empty: Meditations for Indispensable Women" by Ellen Sue Stern, (p. 235), 1992.

  72 Copy quote

• I explained it when I danced it.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Dancing

  "Unknown pleasures: do we enjoy art more if it's anonymous?" by Lyndsey Winship, www.theguardian.com. October 3, 2016.

  56 Copy quote

• Ballet is more than a profession - it is a way of life.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Ballet, Way

  45 Copy quote

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

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Children, Jumping

  49 Copy quote

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

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Dancing, Magic

  Margot Fonteyn (1979). “The magic of dance”, British Broadcasting Corp.

  61 Copy quote

• The world of dance is a charmed place. Some people like to inhabit it, others to behold it; either way it is rewarding.

  Margot Fonteyn

  People, World, Way

  40 Copy quote

• 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

  Baby, Night, Criticism

  69 Copy quote

• generally speaking, we are all happier when we are still striving for achievement than when the prize is in our hands.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Ambition, Hands, Achievement

  51 Copy quote

• Dancers are both athletes and artists.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Art, Athlete, Dancing

  35 Copy quote

• Life forms illogical 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

  Trying, Patterns, Return

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

  41 Copy quote

• I think perhaps I've learned to be myself. I have a theory that all artists who would be important - painters and writers - must learn to be themselves. It takes a very long time.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Thinking, Artist, Long

  38 Copy quote

• 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

  Home, Curse, Continents

  43 Copy quote

• 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

  Important, Done, Might

  37 Copy quote

• ... 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

  Real, Doors, People

  34 Copy quote

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

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Ballet, Firsts

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  33 Copy quote

• 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

  Dance, Civilization, Special

  28 Copy quote

• I’ve found the perfect partner.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Perfect, Found, Partners

  20 Copy quote

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

  Margot Fonteyn

  World, Sometimes, Wilderness

  24 Copy quote

• Dancing was something to be taken very seriously when engaged in and otherwise put out of mind.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Dance, Taken, Dancing

  19 Copy quote

• The essential thing about mothers is that one needs to know that they are there, particularly at that age when, paradoxically, one is trying so hard to break away from parental influence.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Daughter, Mother, Age

  23 Copy quote

• ...wherever one is, some part of oneself remains on another continent.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Continents, Remains, Oneself

  20 Copy quote

• I have never wanted to live to be old, so old I'd run out of friends or money.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Running, Age, Wanted

  7 Copy quote

• Genius is another word for magic.

  Margot Fonteyn

  Magic, Genius, Inexplicable

  Margot Fonteyn (1979). “The magic of dance”, British Broadcasting Corp.

  7 Copy quote

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