In 1980, a well-meaning fundraiser came to see me and said, "Miss Graham, the most powerful thing you have going for you to raise money is your respectability." I wanted to spit. Respectable! Show me any artist who wants to be respectable.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well.

I'm asked so often whether I believe in life after death. I do believe in the sanctity of life, the continuity of life and of energy. I know the anonymity of death has no appeal for me. It is the now that I must face and want to face.

Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.

Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance. Great dancers are great because of their passion.

Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.

Sometimes it's blood memory... not the blood your mother and father gave you... but that which stretches back two or three thousand years.