Margot Fonteyn quotes

Margot Fonteyn — British ballerina.

“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.”

As quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations‎ (1988) by James Beasley Simpson; also quoted in Running on Empty: Meditations for Indispensable Women (1992) by Ellen Sue Stern, p.

“What a beautiful step! I shall never be able to do it.”

As quoted in Encyclopedia of World Biography (1998) edited by Paula Kay Byers and Suzanne Michele Bourgoin, Vol. Hox-Kie‎, p. 504

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

As quoted in Thoughts from Earth (2004) by James Randall Miller

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

p. 9

“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.”

p. 81

“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?”

p. 272

Sourced quotations from Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0.