Quotes from Judith Jamison

The word 'suffering' is not in my vocabulary.

One thing I cannot stand is when people say, 'Hi, how are you?' and they don't wait to hear how I am. They're just going through the motions. I say to people: 'Keep it human. Keep it alive. Don't turn into a robot.' You have to hear what the other person is saying clearly.

You wake up white, and you think about certain things every day. You wake up black, and you think about certain things. You wake up Chinese, and you think certain things - but those things aren't major. What's major is that you are good at your craft.

I've had a really charmed life, you know. Things always come to me - they just do.

I want people to have their own visions for the dance. Some generations will sit back and relate to the music. And the young people ...they'll have the dance right in front of them.

Once you've danced, you always dance. You can't deny the gifts that God sends your way

The world is full of ways for people to dance. Concert dance doesn't get its due.

People come to see beauty, and I dance to give it to them.

I don't think of myself as a leader. I am, but I don't think of myself that way. I'm not trying to belittle what I do, but I think of myself as a dancer first. I'll always be a dancer.

I haven't had a family, but I don't think of that as a sacrifice: my dancers are my family.

As long as there are dancers around who love to dance, there will be an Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. We miss him so much, but he's alive as soon as you see a dancer hit the stage.

I'm very smart when it comes to choosing dancers and trying to show the world that there's a whole lot of dancing going on.

My idea for the Jamison Project was rather like a pickup company. The idea was to give the dancers a taste of the menu. Today, dancers need to try as many companies as possible without having a drop-dead loyalty to me or anyone else. They like to have the leeway to go their own way.

I believe in being prepared. I'm going to say that. Pray, prepare, proceed.

Dance is not endangered - it will always find a way to express itself.

I've danced all over the world, and people are people. We cannot cut off from each other in life. In order to lead, you can't do that.

We can go on talking about racism and who treated whom badly, but what are you going to do about it? Are you going to wallow in that or are you going to create your own agenda?

I could say now at 66, yeah, I was a fabulous dancer. I was really terrific, you know. But I was always present. I was present. I was supposed to be where I was supposed to be at the time I was supposed to be.

Maybe it's a generational thing, but I never wanted to be the best black dancer in the world. I just wanted to be the best.

I've been in a competitive situation almost all my life. I've been having a competition with myself and trying to be the best I could be.

At 10, I could walk down the street and see over everybody's head. I don't remember being little or having to look up at people. I think I was born 5 feet 10. It's not that I felt especially tall. I was wondering when everybody else was going to catch up.

So many people dwell on negativity and I've survived by ignoring it: it dims your light and it's harder each time to turn the power up again.

People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I did. They don't remember me for that. They remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. It's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind.

Concert dance is the hardest kind of dance. We tour constantly, around the world, year in and year out. It just doesn't work for everybody. It's the lifestyle, it's the stamina, it's the love, it's the dedication, it's the commitment, it's all those words.