QuoteProject
The body says what words cannot.
Martha Graham
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The physical expression of the body can communicate emotions and truths that words often fail to capture.

Martha Graham's quote emphasizes the power of body language and physical movement as forms of expression that transcend verbal communication. It suggests that the body can convey deep emotions and sentiments that are sometimes difficult to articulate with words alone, illustrating the importance of physicality in art and human connection.

Themes

BodyExpressionCommunicationArtDance

In practice

Example use cases

In a dance performance, to express the emotions of love and loss.

More from Martha Graham

Nobody cares if you can't dance well.
Martha GrahamRead
Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.
Martha GrahamRead
What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.
Martha GrahamRead
No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a strange, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
Martha GrahamRead
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.
Martha GrahamRead
There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.
Martha GrahamRead

Similar quotes

In my show I announce, 'People say Lady Gaga is a lie, and they are right. I am a lie. And every day I kill to make it true.'
Lady GagaRead
I sang a lot as a little girl and entered competitions. I loved singing in choirs, but it was as I got older that I really found my voice.
Annie LennoxRead
Remember, writing poetry is like making love: one will never know whether one's own pleasure is shared.
Cesare PaveseRead
I haven't stopped painting or drawing - I've just added another medium.
David HockneyRead
I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.
Yves Saint LaurentRead
We may feel bitterly how little our poems can do in the face of seemingly out-of-control technological power and seemingly limitless corporate greed, yet it has always been true that poetry can break isolation, show us to ourselves when we are outlawed or made invisible, remind us of beauty where no beauty seems possible, remind us of kinship where all is represented as separation.
Adrienne RichRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.