“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.”

The center of the stage is where I am.

Nothing is more revealing than movement.

Dancers have more bones than most people and on the days when you work hard you are sure that you have somehow accumulated more bones than you started with.

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

The main thing, of course, always, is the fact that there is only one of you in the world, just one, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. Ambition is not enough; necessity is everything.

I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It’s permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable.

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.

Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.

The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment; it is what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor.

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.

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.

Stand up! Keep your backs straight! Remember that this is where the wings grow.

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

I’d rather an audience like me than dislike me, but I’d rather they disliked me than be apathetic, because that is the kiss of death.

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.

You don’t pick dance. Dance picks you.

I believe it’s not about the product, it’s about the person–and how the product makes them feel.

Few, I believe, have had much affection for mankind, who did not first love their parents, their brothers, sisters, and even the domestic brutes, whom they first played with.

Surround yourself with people who believe in your dreams, encourage your ideas, support your ambitions, and bring out the best in you.

Hear you don’t believe I know enough to hold office. I wish you to understand that I am thinking about something or other most of the time.

Believe in your heart that you’re meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

If you believe very strongly in something, stand up and fight for it.

Early on, you can expect no one to believe in your destiny as much as yourself.