Choreography is mentally draining, but there's a pleasure in getting into the studio with the dancers and the music.
Alvin Ailey

Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people.
Alvin Ailey

I always want more.
Alvin Ailey

I always want to have more dancers in my company.
Alvin Ailey

I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work.
Alvin Ailey

I'm attracted to long-legged girls with long arms and a little head.
Alvin Ailey

If you live in the elite world of dance, you find yourself in a world rife with racism. Let's face it.
Alvin Ailey

In this business, life is one long fund-raising effort.
Alvin Ailey

It will take very sophisticated marketing to achieve our aim of bringing more black people into the theater.
Alvin Ailey

Lena Horne is the sweetest and most adorable woman in the world.
Alvin Ailey


Money is a never-ending problem.
Alvin Ailey

My feelings about myself have been terrible.
Alvin Ailey

My lasting impression of Truman Capote is that he was a terribly gentle, terribly sensitive, and terribly sad man.
Alvin Ailey

No matter what you write or choreograph, you feel it's not enough.
Alvin Ailey

Nothing personal; I just don't have people over.
Alvin Ailey

One of the processes of your life is to constantly break down that inferiority, to constantly reaffirm that I Am Somebody.
Alvin Ailey

One of the worst things about racism is what it does to young people.
Alvin Ailey

Racism tears down your insides so that no matter what you achieve, you're not quite up to snuff.
Alvin Ailey

Sometimes you feel bad about yourself when there's no reason to.
Alvin Ailey

The creative process is not controlled by a switch you can simply turn on or off; it's with you all the time.
Alvin Ailey