Martha Graham Quotes

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.

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

All things I do are in every woman. Every woman is Medea. Every woman is Jocasta. There comes a time when a woman is a mother to her husband. Clytemnestra is every woman when she kills.

The body is a sacred garment.

America does not concern itself now with Impressionism. We own no involved philosophy. The psyche of the land is to be found in its movement. It is to be felt as a dramatic force of energy and vitality. We move; we do not stand still. We have not yet arrived at the stock-taking stage.

Dance is the landscape of man's soul.

'Age' is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.

My childhood years were a balance of dark and light.

I get up, I fall down, all the while I am dancing.

The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything.

If you feel depressed you shouldn't go out on the street because it will show on your face and you'll give it to others. Misery is a communicable disease.

The world I'm interested in is the one where things are not named.

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.

I love words very much. I've always loved to talk, and I've always love words — the words that rest in your mouth, what words mean and how you taste them and so on. And for me the spoken word can be used almost as a gesture.

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

What makes a great dancer is not technique. What makes a great dancer is passion.

No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times.

What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.

It's not my job to look beautiful. It's my job to look interesting.

The reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living.

Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

I've relaxed my feelings about other companies performing my works. I have never in principle been against my ballets being danced by other companies. Rather, it is that we lack the time, space and money to insure that they are done well. To me, the only sin is mediocrity.

To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.

Dancing is a very living art. It is essentially of the moment, although a very old art. A dancer's art is lived while he is dancing. Nothing is left of his art except the pictures and the memories--when his dancing days are over.

My dancing is not an attempt to interpret life in the literary sense. It is an affirmation of life through movement.

Discipline is liberation.