A good education is usually harmful to a dancer. A good calf is better than a good head.
Agnes de Mille

Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little.
Agnes de Mille

Modern dancers give a sinister portent about our times.
Agnes de Mille

No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made known silently.
Agnes de Mille

The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.
Agnes de Mille

The creative urge is the demon that will not accept anything second rate.
Agnes de Mille

The practice mirror is to be used for the correction of faults, not for a love affair, and the figure you watch should not become your dearest friend.
Agnes de Mille

The truest expression of a people is in its dances and its music. Bodies never lie.
Agnes de Mille

The universe lies before you on the floor, in the air, in the mysterious bodies of your dancers, in your mind. From this voyage no one returns poor or weary.
Agnes de Mille

Theater people are always pining and agonizing because they're afraid that they'll be forgotten. And in America they're quite right. They will be.
Agnes de Mille


To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.
Agnes de Mille