Best 98 quotes of Martha Graham on MyQuotes

Misery is a communicable disease.

Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America.

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

No animal ever has an ugly body until it is domesticated. It is the same with the human body.

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

Nobody cares if you can't dance well.

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

One can always lament, you know — but to laugh in the face of life, that's very hard. And for me the great tragedian should also be a great comedian.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

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.

Repetition not for monotony but the ecstasy it induces.

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

Some of you are doomed to be artists.

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

Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.

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

The body is shaped, disciplined, honored, and in time, trusted.

The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body. I don't leap and jump anymore. I look at young dancers, and I am envious, more aware of what glories the body contains. But sensitivity is not made dull by age.

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

The gesture is the thing truly expressive of the individual - as we think so will we act.

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.

The past is not dead; it is not even past. People live on inner time; the moment in which a decisive thought or feeling takes place can be at any time. Timeless feelings are common to all of us.

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

There is a force, a quickness that is translated through you into action. If you block it, the world will not have it.

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.

There is fatigue so great that the body cries, even in its sleep.

The spine is the tree of life. Respect it.

The unique must be fulfilled.

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

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.

To me, this acquirement of nervous, physical, and emotional concentration is the one element possessed to the highest degree by the truly great dancers of the world. Its acquirement is the result of discipline, of energy in the deep sense. That is why there are so few great dancers.

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.

We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.

What I do must be done in the sunlight of awareness.

When you start with an idea, or something hits you, then you have to follow that through to the end, and it's the following through to the end that makes the pattern. That, for me, is choreography.

Wherever a dancer stands is holy ground.

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.

You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.

You give all your life to doing this one thing. It sounds grim, it sounds frightening - it isn't - it has a great gaiety at times and a great wonder.

You have no right to go before a public without an adequate technique, just because you feel. Anything feels - a leaf feels, a storm feels - what right have you to do that? You have to have speech, and it's a cultivated speech.

You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

You will only get out of a dance class what you bring to it. Learn by practice.

Dancing is very like poetry.

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 did not ever dream of establishing a technique. I still can't believe anything like that happened.

The body never lies." Martha Graham

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, 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. 
You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. 
You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. 
Keep the channel open.

There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and 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. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is on a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

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.