The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
AGNES DE MILLEThe choreographic process is exhausting. It happens on one’s feet after hours of work, and the energy required is roughly the equivalent of writing a novel and winning a tennis match simultaneously.
More Agnes de Mille Quotes
-
-
I learned three important things in college-to use a library, to memorize quickly and visually, to drop asleep at any time given a horizontal surface and fifteen minutes.
AGNES DE MILLE -
Then I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down… and kissed him. And the world cracked open.
AGNES DE MILLE -
Destiny is made known silently.
AGNES DE MILLE -
Ours is an upbeat, a hurried, hasty beat. It keeps pressing us to go farther, to include everything so that we can savor everything, so that we can know everything.
AGNES DE MILLE -
The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
AGNES DE MILLE -
Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion.
AGNES DE MILLE -
We have the most varied and imaginative bathrooms in the world, we have kitchens with the most gimmicks, we have houses with every possible electrical gadget to save ourselves all kinds of trouble – all so that we can have leisure. Leisure, leisure, leisure!
AGNES DE MILLE -
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
AGNES DE MILLE -
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.
AGNES DE MILLE -
We can’t stand silence, because silence induces thinking. And if we thought, we would have to face ourselves.
AGNES DE MILLE -
I want one word on my tombstone – dancer.
AGNES DE MILLE -
One of the good things about my having some recognition is that I can do something for the people
AGNES DE MILLE -
Dancers don’t get invited to visit people. It is assumed a boy dancer will run off with the spoons and a girl with the head of the house.
AGNES DE MILLE -
But all of these knew very well what they did not want, and what they did not want was the current coin, the well-worn usage.
AGNES DE MILLE -
No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth.
AGNES DE MILLE