Martha Graham Quotes

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.

- Martha Graham

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.

- Martha Graham

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.

- Martha Graham

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.

- Martha Graham

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.

- Martha Graham

The body is a sacred garment.

- Martha Graham

Every dance is a kind of fever chart, a graph of the heart.

- Martha Graham

Censorship is the height of vanity.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

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

- 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.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.

- Martha Graham

The only sin is mediocrity.

- Martha Graham

Fire is the test of gold; adversity, of strong men.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

Misery is a communicable disease.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

The body never lies.

- Martha Graham

The body says what words cannot.

- Martha Graham

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

- Martha Graham

Learn by practice.

- Martha Graham