110 Best Quotes From Netflix’s Tiny Pretty Things

Based on Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton’s novel, Tiny Pretty Things (2020) is a Netflix original show that delves into the world of ballet. The protagonist, Neveah Stroyer, enters the prestigious Archer school of ballet as a replacement for a student who nearly falls to her death in the academy. Created by Michael MacLennan, Tiny Pretty Things introduces the audience to the cold and back-stabbing world of ballet through relationships built on lies and betrayals.

Here’s the scoop on the best quotes from Tiny Pretty Things!

1. “The power to fly. That’s what you dream of. There’s no better feeling. The truth is, you only fly for a second or two before gravity takes back what you tried to steal.” – Cassie

2. “You drink or smoke, you’re out. You fail your academics, you’re gone. You get too skinny, you’re sent home. You get caught screwing a boy, or a girl, for that matter, bye-bye.” – Torri

3. “Touch an audience the same way that you would touch me.” – Ramon Costa

4. “Always, something hurts. Somewhere on your body, there’s pain, an ache that comes from punching beyond what any person was ever meant to do.” – Cassie 

5. “But there’s strength in being part of a larger body. The corps de ballet.” – Cassie

6. “I get that I’m late to the party, and I get that I might ruin your little plan, to be the next queen bee around here, but I got up in here fair and square, and you best believe I’m coming for you.” – Neveah

7. “Piercing this takes time. Every institution has its secrets.” – Cruz

8. “There’s a price you pay learning to fly. They steal your childhood, and your family… leave you only with friends who hope every day that your Achilles will snap. And they never let you grow up.” – Cassie

9. “It’s ballet. Nobody’s good enough.” – June

10. “Bloody artists, can’t keep their schedule.” – Marciel

11. “I came here to dance, to do the one thing in my crazy-ass life that I can hold onto, and they don’t care about that.” – Neveah 

12. “If you need someone else to say you are a good dancer… you aren’t.” – Nabil

13. “I heard what you were saying about not fitting the mold. That’s a good thing, and it always has been.” – Shane 

14. “We all admired Cassie, but we didn’t much like her.” – June

15. “Folks at your school might keep getting hurt unless we shine a light.” – Cruz 

16. “There’s rules, officer. And I’m not the one around here to break them.” – June

17. “But what nobody else sees is those rivals are also the only people who get you… who celebrate you for who you are and challenge you to do better. There’s no other way to say it. They’re your tribe.” – Cassie

18. “Partnering. It is about working together, but it’s also about… opposition. About finding a language of reach and response.” – Topher

19. “We live in a dark, twisted world full of loss, lies, and brutality.” – Ramon Costa

20. “You risk too much, fly too high… and you could end up like me, in this bed, clinging to life.” – Cassie

21. “Great artists face the darkness.” – Ramon Costa

22. “You push these dancers’ bodies to the limit. Why coddle their psyches?” – Ramon Costa

23. “No, what I need is for my colleagues to protect people instead of institutions. There is something wrong with that place. And if you can’t see it, then you’re part of the problem.” – Cruz

24. “I have seen too many women squander their potential, feeling getting in the way of a case.” – Dan

25. “You need to think like a puppet. Our ballet master’s the brain. You’re just the body.” – June

26. “You find the perfect torture to get results without busting up the machine that got you this far.” – Cassie

27. “I just need a mom right now.” – Bette 

28. “You’re young. You’re hungry. You’re strong, and you’re eager, but none of you are consistent, and in ballet, that is everything.” – Ramon Costa

29. “To honor my father tonight, I had to defend his enemy.” – Caleb 

30. “To make yourself into malleable clay demands everything.” – Cassie

31. “I’m an artist. And like any decent artist… I’m a beast.” Ramon Costa

32. “You become flexible to get closer to God. You stretch your essence, your soul. Show them what you’re made of.” – Cassie

33. “It’s gotta be scary… you coming into a world that she left so terribly.” – Cruz 

34. “And in combat, you need a gunner watching your back before you ever get out of the hole you’re hiding in. What I’m trying to tell you, Neveah… is I got your back.” – Cruz

35. “We Whitlaws are there when a problem needs fixing.” – Bette 

36. “You are a damn good liar, Miss Whitlaw. But no matter what, our bodies tell the truth.” – Alan 

37. “Pain is every dancer’s companion, the annoying friend you can never escape, the one you hope won’t call very often.” – Cassie 

38. “The thing with pain is it’s when you’re not dancing you feel it the most. The very cause of it helps you forget it.” – Cassie

39. “You know the saying ‘beauty is agony?’ It’s the ballet equivalent of ‘no pain, no gain.’” – Cassie

40. “Up here, it’s all about them watching you. Just let yourself fly.” – Delia 

41. “You know how that feels. To exist in the shadow of something greater. Show me. Tell me.” – Ramon Costa

42. “You’ve been in the shadow for far too long. The light is yours now. Claim it.” – Ramon Costa

43. “Look. I’m not here to keep you kids out of trouble. I’m here to kick you out when you get into it.” – Torri

44. “Could you for once not kick me when I’m down? You’ve never had to give up anything you’ve ever wanted.” – June

45. “She may be the one in that hospital bed… dead on the outside, but… but me… I’m dead on the inside.” – Nabil

46. “Pain recognizes pain. Ain’t that right, baby?” – Shane

47. “Well, I won’t say goodbye. Only, au revoir.” – Nabil

48. “Ballet people, man. They make my trailer trash family seem fucking royal.” – Shane 

49. “Don’t you think you can love two people?” – Shane

50. “I think you’re a great guy, Shane. And one day you’re gonna find someone who’s gonna give you everything. He just ain’t here yet.” – Neveah

51. “In ballet, pain is an occupational hazard. If it’s not in your hamstring or your Achilles, it’s in your heart.” – Cassie 

52. “This man… this country… is so broken.” – Nabil

53. “I get it. I talk strange. I barely smile. I don’t seem normal to people… until I dance, and then I express the things that… I cannot say.” – Nabil

54. “The problem is that you’ve been led to believe that your opinions, your feelings, your dreams, that they matter.” – Ramon Costa

55. “The trick is to fool yourself into believing you have roots or that you can fly when all evidence says otherwise.” – Cassie

56. “We’re still bourree-ing on pointe shoes that were invented in the 1800s. If you want change… go dance contemporary.” – Bette 

57. “I don’t need an education on what grief can do.” – Nabil

58. “I’d rather spend my whole career in the back row than be some ice queen who’s forgotten what real passion feels like.” – June

59. “This place is rampant with abuse.”- Bette

60. “We toss flowers and teddy bears on Cassie’s shrine, but how many of us are secretly glad that she’s out of the way?” – June

61. “If we stood together this one time, maybe we all wouldn’t feel so alone.” – June

62. “I know less about ballet than the rest of you, but I’ve devoted my life to putting together the bodies this place tears apart.” – Alan

63. “I’ve seen the destruction you’re capable of. How you ravage each other’s hearts and bodies, and for what? Validation of strangers. A moment in the spotlight. A dream of stardom.” – Ramon Costa 

64. “Each of you will at some point embody our darkest impulses. You’ll each be the killer who seeks to destroy.” – Ramon Costa 

65. “Like every beginning, it’s the start of the solo that’s the scariest.” – Cassie

66. “I’m queen bee now. When I say ‘jump,’ my dancers say, ‘How high?’” – Bette

67. “And there’s no trust now. And without trust, there cannot be a dance between us.” – Nabil 

68. “I want you to live in fear every day, at every turn, the same way I have.” Nabil

69. “The time will come, June. Maybe tomorrow or maybe weeks from now when there’s lift you expect from me… a catch you must trust me to do, and I want you to know that when the time comes… when you’re at your most vulnerable… I will let you fall.” – Nabil 

70. “On what planet does a threesome with Ramon Costa make things better?” – Oren

71. “Why do I keep wrecking everything that’s good in my life?” – Oren

72. “Talent’s only a part of the equation.” – Sienna

73. “And my guess, this girl you love, if she knew what you were facing right now, she wouldn’t want you to sit around waiting. She’d want you to dance.” – Sienna

74. “Eye on the prize. If they push, you push right back. Stand your ground. Feel your power.” – Monique 

75. “People will only have their way with you… if you let them.” – Monique

76. “The only reason I made it through is because I had you, and you had me. Now there’s somebody else that needs your help. Just let your mother fucking love you.” – Tyler 

77. “I left my mom young too. If you study ballet, it’s kind of the deal. But I also found something in me that… felt better than a mother’s love. And just when I think how unfair the bargain is, how ballet robs childhood and breaks bones… I use it to make something beautiful.” – Sienna 

78. “I don’t know if it’s about me, or other things you’ve done, but I do know if we don’t tell each other the truth if we don’t get real for one minute, that we don’t stand a chance.” – Oren 

79. “Maybe I do need the help you’ve got on offer. I just worry that I won’t know how to accept it.” – Neveah 

80. “I want you to know I don’t think I got here on my own. Between Dad, Tyler, Grandma, Miss Banks… and you, Mom. You all cleared a path for me.” – Neveah

81. “Except as you proved, people walk away from their promises all the time.” – Oren

82. “I used to think the trick was to feel everything when I danced. And it turns out it’s better to feel precisely nothing.” – Bette

83. “I’m stuck in a puzzle where somebody’s hiding the last piece.” – Cruz

84. “They’re less students, more instruments.” – Ramon Costa

85. “It’s time you showed me that you gave a damn about this art form, about this school… and about me.” – Monique

86. “If it’s dance, me against them, I consider it a full-on war. But outside of the studio… I show up.” – Bette

87. “All I am… is this stupid body.” – Shane

88. “It’s not just one person who threw Cassie Shore off that ledge. It is 400 years of this twisted, beautiful art form that the Western world conspired to create.” – Cruz

89. “Karma’s a bitch.” – Matteo

90. “Grandma always said, ‘When they’re leaving you, you gotta remember the good.’ But I got nothing.” – Shane

91. “I don’t pick sides, Neveah. I just report the truth. The rest is your battle to fight.” – Zandara

92. “When the stage lights are off and the plush, velvet seats of the audience are empty… when the patrons have all gone home… what are you then?” – Cassie

93. “Who knew normcore could be so hot?” – Shane

94. “I blame 40 years of demanding the best from my body, and now it’s taking its revenge.” – Monique

95. “I know love when I see it.” – Bette

96. “You may think words are the strongest thing we have… but sometimes it’s our own bodies that can be even more eloquent.” – Cassie

97. “Ballet is the great destroyer.” – Topher

98. “Your turn to fly.” – Cassie

99. “At least you believe. I stopped doing that a year ago. I miss it… faith.” – Caleb

100. “Damn girl. You fight dirty.” – Cassie

101. “They brought me here to change ballet, but ballet is changing me right back.” – Neveah

102. “For God’s sake, Nabil, move on. Get out of this room and onto the stage. That’s where we carve out our revenge.” – Delia

103. “You can have love and still be great.” – Oren

104. “Show me your arches.”

105. “Call it a dance hack.”

106. “You need to think like a puppet.”

107. “Homie in a comie.”

108. “I’m not afraid to get dirty.”

109. “I put my roommate in a coma.”

110. “I schooled you well.”

Hope you enjoyed these quotes from Tiny Pretty Things on Netflix!

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