Per Mille Quotes & Sayings

To make up a dance, I still need, as I needed then, a pot of tea, walking space, privacy and an idea. — Agnes De Mille

Who am I?, the artist asks. And he devotes his whole life to finding out. — Agnes De Mille

So they were turning, after all - those cameras. Life, which can be strangely merciful, had taken pity on Norma Desmond. The dream she had clung to so desperately had enfolded her. Norma: You see, this is my life. It always will be! (In a whisper) There's nothing else - just us - and the cameras - and those wonderful people out there in the dark. All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up. — Gloria Swanson

Ballet technique never becomes easy, it becomes possible — Agnes De Mille

No white man uses his feet the way an Indian does. He talks to the earth. — Agnes De Mille

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently. — Agnes De Mille

The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate. — Agnes De Mille

Above all, there was Almah. Everything combined to make her most dear to me. My life has been such that I never before had seen anyone whome I loved; and here Almah was the one congenial and sympathetic, and I loved her dearly, even before I understood what my feelings were. One day I learned all, and found that she was more precious to me than all the world. — James De Mille

A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head. — Agnes De Mille

Many other women have kicked higher, balanced longer, or turned faster. These are poor substitutes for passion. — Agnes De Mille

The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie. — Agnes De Mille

I had starred in more than 30 successful films, six in a row directed by Cecil B. De Mille. — Gloria Swanson

Dancing is such a despised and dishonored trade that if you tell a doctor or a laywer you do choreography he'll look at you as if you were a hummingbird. 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

I studied the way I danced- to the point of dropping. — Agnes De Mille

The gesture of taking the watch from the pocket and looking at the time is very elegant for a man, but if I was going to create a pocket watch, I wanted it to be very modern. I didn't want to do old-fashioned. — Richard Mille

My heroines are part of me and my heroes are part of what I'd like to know. — Agnes De Mille

Toe dancing is a dandy attention getter, second only to screaming. — Agnes De Mille

If you want a watch with diamonds on the bezel, you don't need me. — Richard Mille

A dessert made out of a dozen matzohs, a gallon of cream and amaretto liqueur, and a tub of raspberries. What I believe my mother is aiming for is a mille-feuille, or, in Russian, a tort Napoleon. The result is a vaguely Passover-based departure from pastry reality. In deference to its point of origin, she likes to call it French. — Gary Shteyngart

The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary. — Agnes De Mille

I love paradox. I like to go where people don't expect me to go. — Richard Mille

Great artists can be uncertain. Of course they are while strugggling to find solutions. Tolstoi's scripts are almost indecipherable. Emily Dickinson provided four or more alternates for every word; Beethoven wrestled with endings to the point of exhaustion; in our day Jerome Robbins and his lack of decision are a byword in the dance profession. 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. What they wanted was something newly experienced, and therefore unknown and hard to attain. — Agnes De Mille

Will you stay here? No. Will you go back? You can't. We must, therefore, go on. That's is our only hope.
Horror is a feeling that cannot last long; human nature is incapable of supporting it.
Poverty, sicknes, and death are evils; but the worst of all evils is unrequited love. — James De Mille

I had had to learn the difference between the bearable fatigue and the unbearable, the fatigue of fear. The first can be cured by a night's sleep; the second kills. — Agnes De Mille

People think a watch must weigh a lot to be a luxury. But there's no reason why we should add weight to create value. People have to overcome these notions. — Richard Mille

Then I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down ... and kissed him. And the world cracked open. — Agnes De Mille

The 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. — Agnes De Mille

Dance constitutes a true recapturing of ... freedom and childish play. — Agnes De Mille

But remember that intent is everything. One does not just jump, one lifts into the air, one rises. In the same way the lifted leg of an arabesque becomes a wing, and not a mechanical leverage like a raised trap door. This is the precise difference between dancing and acrobatics. The dancer tries to express something; the acrobat merely pulls, raises, stretches and grinds. The acrobat is lost in a web of muscles the dancer is all but invisible in projected idea. — Agnes De Mille

Ne reprenez, dame, si j'ai aime , Si j'ai senti mille torches ardentes, Mille travaux, mille douleurs mordantes, Si, en pleurant, j'ai mon temps consume . Do not blame me, madam, if I loved, If I felt one thousand burning torches, One thousand labours, or one thousand scathing pains, If, in crying, I spent all my time. — Louise Labe