Alvin Ailey's Quotes

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.

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

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

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

My feelings about myself have been terrible.

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

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

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

I always want more.

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

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

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

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

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

Money is a never-ending problem.

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

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

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

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

We still spend more time chasing funds than we do in the studio in creative work.