Martha Graham wrote in a letter to Agnes De Mille …

“There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all Time, this expression is unique.

And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world will not have it.

It is not your business to determine: how good it is; nor how valuable it is; nor how it compares with other expressions.

It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.

You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open … no artist is pleased…there is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction; a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”

[Thanks to our good friend, Walter Rapaport, for bringing my attention to this.]

And here’s a book review I found at highbeam.com —

“It’s not every book that takes more than 20 years to write and to publish. But then, not every book allies two lifelong friends as author and subject–and, in the case of Agnes de Mille and Martha Graham, two leaders of 20th-century dance. Martha: The Life and Work of Martha Graham (Nonfiction Forecasts, Aug. 9), published by Random House, is just such a book. Written by de Mille, the choreographer of Rodeo, Oklahoma!, and many other acclaimed ballets and works of musical theater, this intimately informative biography of her peer is also, as it happens, a subtle self-portrait…”