Martha Graham

“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.”

“The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“The body is a sacred garment.”

“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 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 creatures from another planet, but something of the miracle that is a human being.”