Martha Graham

Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.

People have asked me why I chose to be a dancer. I did not choose. I was chosen to be a dancer, and with that, you live all your life.

We are all of us, unique - each a unique pattern of creativity and if we do not fulfill it, it is lost for all time.

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

Think of the magic of that foot, comparatively small, upon which your whole weight rests. It's a miracle, and the dance is a celebration of that miracle.

The next time you look into the mirror, just look at the way the ears rest next to the head; look at the way the hairline grows; think of all the little bones in your wrist. It is a miracle. And the dance is a celebration of that miracle.

In a dancer, there is a reverence for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength.

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.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.

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

You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost.

It is not your business to determine how good it is, nor how valuable it is, nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.

Theater used to be a verb; it used to be an act. But nowadays it is just a noun. It is a place.

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.

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.

I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.

I am certain that movement never lies. There is only one law of posture I have been able to discover - the perpendicular line connecting heaven and earth.

Dancers today can do anything; the technique is phenomenal. The passion and the meaning to their movement can be another thing.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.