Agnes de Mille Quotes

It is my nature to strive to do my best. This does tend to take a toll on you.

I have no pride about anything I have done. It's just not the way I think about things. I do the work, always, as hard as I can, to the point of pain, injury, exhaustion, if that is what it takes. Once I am done, I move on.

I find it so all-encompassing when acting that there's no room for anything else when you're in it; you're just locked into thinking about it all day, you go to sleep with it, wake up with it, and when I come back, I really need time to recover.

I could not have done anymore, I had pushed myself to a limit that I had never touched before and that's definitely going to change you - than going out and doing what you do in practice every day.

My goal was to become the best dancer in the world and, because I started late, I always had this feeling I was playing catch-up, so I've been a bit of a maniac most of my life, sort of striving.

Concert dance is the hardest kind of dance. We tour constantly, around the world, year in and year out. It just doesn't work for everybody. It's the lifestyle, it's the stamina, it's the love, it's the dedication, it's the commitment, it's all those words.

I had to spend countless hours, above and beyond the basic time, to try and perfect the fundamentals.

I promise you, if you look at YouTube and see some of my first covers, you will hear that I don't sound good. But I was so obsessed with it and wanted so much to be good at it that I forced myself to figure out what sounds right and what sounds wrong.

Well, I am obsessive about my work. I throw myself in all the way.

I think self-criticism is sort of a given when you're an actor. It's also about being curious and not being flippant. Anyone who accepts being in this noble profession is automatically self-critical.

Most players who play tennis love the game. But I think you also have to respect it. You want to do everything you can in your power to do your best. And for me, I know I get insane guilt if I go home at the end of the day and don't feel I've done everything I can. If I know I could have done something better, I have this uneasy feeling.

From Fred Astaire I learned discipline and hard work.

Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

I'm such a workaholic.

I am not like my image; I take my work so seriously. Everyone thinks I just bounce in, but I study and everything has to be just right.

I don't listen to my own records a lot. Once in a while - to check out my mistakes. Because you can always see a spot or two in the record where you could have done better. So you more or less study this way.

All the energy, all the pain, sweat and tears that go into it, the amount I had to put in to get me to where I had to play, it was more taxing on me physically and mentally than it was good for me.

When I look back on what I've done, I think I'm drawn to obsession, perhaps.

I worked my face off.

I'm not a natural. I had to teach myself - or be taught - everything I do. I just spent hours and hours in the mirror mimicking Michael Jackson.

The first three years, I don't think I would leave my hotel room outside of tennis, because I was like, 'I got to rest, I got to rest.' It was like sort of a paranoia to do everything as best as I can.

Some days I would work 18-hour days because I was dancing and choreographing.

When I was younger, I'd be in the studio three days straight to get something right, and my manager would be like, 'Go home!' Even now, I still sleep in the studio sometimes, but I can't do it quite as often. I've got gigs; I can't have my hobo beard! But if you love what you're doing, you can't stop. It's obsessive.

As a footballer, I'm never satisfied with where I'm at.

I definitely learned that when I want something done, I'm very tunnel-visioned out. I don't come out of the house. I beat myself up. I don't eat. I don't sleep until it's done, especially if I have a deadline in mind.