I had discovered that love might be a pastime as well as a tragedy, and I gave myself to it with pagan innocence.

The artist is the only lover; he alone has the pure vision of beauty, and love is the vision of the soul when it is permitted to gaze upon immortal beauty.

So that ends my first experience of matrimony, which I always thought a highly over-rated performance.

The first essential in writing about anything is that the writer should have no experience of the matter.

Eleonora Duse said, "Tell me about Deirdre and Patrick," and made me repeat to her all their little sayings and ways, and show her their photos, which she kissed and cried over. She never said "Cease to grieve", but she grieved with me, and, for the first time since their death, I felt I was not alone.

Oh Woman, come before us, before our eyes longing for beauty, and tired of the ugliness of civilization, come in simple tunics, letting us see the line and harmony of the body beneath, and dance for us. Dance us the sweetness of life. Give us again the sweetness and the beauty of the true dance, give us again the joy of seeing the simple unconscious pure body of a woman. Like a great call it has come, and women must hear it and answer it.

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.