Marcus Samuelsson Quotes

There is always tension in women's gymnastics between athleticism, grace, performance, and eros.

Figure skating, especially the longer performances, are such a feat. It requires so much stamina and is so beautiful.

You never find virtuosity for its own sake.

I really have a new-found respect for dancers.

I doubt Picasso ever painted a picture in an hour, he took his time, looked at every detail and made sure it was perfect.

You are an athlete if you are a dancer.

Ballet is good, because it makes you stand up tall.

Technique is the test of sincerity. If a thing isn't worth getting the technique to say, it is of inferior value.

There are certain things in which mediocrity is not to be endured, such as poetry, music, painting, public speaking.

I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art.

One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion.

My body was so instrumental to how I took pictures: it was practically a dance. I used to use my legs a lot; now I'm a little more sedentary.

I think of action as a dance. It's a riddle; it should have emotion in it.

You've got to perfect your craft.

To be able to run routes, that's like the greatest thing to me. It's kind of like an art to me. It's like a painter drawing or something like that. That's how I feel every time I run a route.

Dancers are always striving for perfection. A great dancer never achieves it: you always want to do another turn, a higher jumpa, more difficult acrobatic jump.

It is entertainment; we mustn't forget that. Dance is entertainment. You can have the best technicians in the world, but they'll be boring to watch. It has to be about entertainment as well, but it's quality, grace.

I take my craft seriously.

To me, trying to achieve the balance is when you become good: when you have enough technique to be able to play what is that you want, but also when you can refine what you want to communicate to people. As a younger person, it wasn't something I thought about so much.

Art is anything you can do well. Anything you can do with quality.

If one had to define one essential gift with which a dancer needs to be endowed, there might be a rush of answers. A beautiful body, grace of line, graciousness of spirit, joy in the work, ability to please, unswerving integrity, relentless ambition towards some abstract perfection. Certainly all these factors determine a dancer's character, and every element exists in some combination within the performing artist's presence.

Technical perfection is insufficient. It is an orphan without the true soul of the dancer.

It is of no use to possess a lively wit if it is not of the right proportion: the perfection of a clock is not to go fast, but to be accurate.

If you don't like your definition of 'good enough', then feel free to change that, but the goal before shipping is merely that. Not perfect.

When you watch a tea ceremony, every single movement, every single gesture is very calculated. It's very precise, and it's all protocol. It's all a part of the system. And it's almost like they've sacrificed every single thing to make that perfect. It's like their craft.