Sylvie Guillem Quotes

Love cannot express the idea of music, while music may give an idea of love.

When I was dancing, whether it was the music or the story, the question was 'Why am I doing this piece, and why am I dancing?' It is exactly the same when you are acting. You have a very close relationship with your body movement. You have to find the physicality of your character.

The body cannot lie. You cannot be somebody else onstage, no matter how good of an actor or dancer or singer you are. When you open your arms, move your finger, the audience knows who you are, you know.

To put on a performance, you have to be emotional. You can't be a zombie.

For me, the most effective cabaret evenings have been some of the most personal ones, where the performer is comfortable enough to simply be themselves.

Actors have to make you believe that it's happening for the first time and all that jazz and make it human and at the same time entertain you.

Olivier said that drama is an affair of the heart, or it's nothing, and he was right.

It's not enough to hit the notes. There is no point in the singers just standing there and sounding wonderful if they're not connecting with the characters they are portraying.

Don't forget there are two sides to performing. Finding the truth, but you also have to be transparent enough for the audience to see it. How many times have you seen a performance and thought: 'Well, it seems to be meaning a great deal to you but it ain't coming across to me?' It is to be shared.

Intimacy comes from being yourself on the stage and making the audience feel, without trying, that you're sittin' down there with 'em, playing, and that can happen in a big hall, if you have a good audience that want to listen.

If I wanted to do something on stage, I wanted it to be something I could really get into and feel.

I like making people feel things. Acting doesn't seem like lying but like storytelling.

I love watching people tell stories, because it's very vulnerable.

I'm attracted to music made by people who let themselves be emotional. They really care about what they do, and we believe in what they say.

Acting is not hiding to me; it's revealing. We give you license to feel. 'Hey, she's crying, so it's okay if I cry, too.' That's the most important thing in the world, because when you stop feeling, that's when you're dead.

Acting is an emotion which has to be felt. Some feel it, some don't!

I have always believed that an artiste needs to respond to a story first. One has to feel it in order to live it.

It's not enough to play a song: you have to inhabit it.

I sing as an actress. Whatever I'm singing about, I just become the story.

The whole basis of my singing is feeling. Unless I feel something, I can't sing.

I do all the things that singer-songwriters do. I introduce the songs, I have a story to tell about everything all the time - I cannot be on stage and have something on my mind without telling the audience. I'm super emotional and expressive and vulnerable in that moment.

Acting is like sex. You should just do it and not talk about it.

I actually always try to have a moment in my show where I can just lay down on stage and talk to people for a little while.

So we had life, death, illness, everything - every emotional involvement we had, we experienced. And I think that made what we had to do on stage, stronger. We got very much involved in what we were doing.