Quotes by Martha Graham

“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”

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

“I never set out to create a technique. I started out on the floor to find myself, to find what the body could do, and what would give me satisfaction - emotionally, dramatically and bodily. But I d...”

“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 n...”

“I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance o...”

“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 it will be lost.”

“I have heard stories that it was love at first sight for both of us, that we disappeared to a guest room at Merle's house, had our meals sent up, and didn't emerge for several days. This is absolut...”

“I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man--the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be.”

“The only sin is mediocrity.”

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

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul”

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

“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. ”

“You can be Eastern or Burmese or what have you, but the function of the body and the awareness of the body results in dance and you become a dancer, not just a human being. ”

“To me, the body says what words cannot. I believe that dance was the first art.”

“Dancing is very like poetry.”

“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.”

“I did not want to be a tree, a flower or a wave. In a dancer's body, we as audience must see ourselves, not the imitated behavior of everyday actions, not the phenomenon of nature, not exotic creat...”

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

“We learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. One becomes in some area an athlete of God.”