"But the dance speaks to everyone. Otherwise it wouldn't work."

--

Source : "Alvin Ailey, a Leading Figure In Modern Dance, Dies at 58" by Jennifer Dunning, www.nytimes.com. December 2, 1989.

Alvin Ailey

“Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it[.”
“I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.”
“I know a few things to be true. I do not know where I am going, where I have come from is disappearing, I am unwelcome and my beauty is not beauty here. My body is burning with the shame of not belonging, my body is longing.”
“Some writers find that they don't know their themes until they've finished the first draft (I am one). They then rewrite with an eye toward balancing on that tightrope: not too contrived, not too rambling; does what I'm saying about the world below me actually add up to anything? Other writers pay attention to these things as they write the first draft. Either way, an awareness of the macro and micro levels of theme can provide one more tool for thinking about what you should write, and how.”
“Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device.”
“I think that's the reality of the business. It's not about what you did. It's what have you done for me lately. We're in the production business. What you did before is irrelevant. Everyone knows that.”
“I do not know of any environmental group in any country that does not view its government as an adversary.”
“'Dare to Discipline' was published in 1970 in the midst of the Vietnam War and a culture of rebellion. The book was written in that context, but the principles of child rearing have not changed.”

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