What I am interested in doing is finding and expressing a new form of life

I would rather live in Russia on black bread and vodka than in the United States at the best hotels. America knows nothing of food, love or art.

To express what is the most moral, healthful and beautiful in art this is the mission of the dancer, and to this I dedicate my life.

For I was never able to understand, then or later on, why, if one wanted to do a thing, one should not do it. For I have never waited to do as I wished. This has frequently brought me to disaster and calamity, but at least I have had the the satisfaction of getting my own way.

The only dance masters I could have were Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Walt Whitman and Nietzsche.

The noblest art is the nude. This truth is recognized by all, and followed by painters, sculptors and poets. Only the dancer has forgotten it, who should remember it, as the instrument of [the dance] art is the human body itself.

Man must speak, then sing, then dance. The speaking is the brain, the thinking man. The singing is the emotion. The dancing is the Dionysian ecstasy which carries away all.