“All these dismal things that are going on in the world - the isolation...” — Merce Cunningham Quote

“All these dismal things that are going on in the world - the isolation and the sickness and the governments and the pollution - it's so frightful, over the whole world.”

“I think the thing that we agreed to so many years ago, actually, was that the music didn't have to support the dance nor the dance illustrate the music, but they could be two things going on at the same time.”

“You do not separate the human being from the actions he does or the actions which surround him, but you see what it is like to break these actions up in different ways, to allow passion - and it is passion - to appear for each person in his own way.”

“My dance classes were open to anybody, my only stipulation was that they had to come to the class every day.”

“In using chance operations, the mind is enriched.”

“I was told that I had to give grades to the students, which I wasn't particularly interested in doing.”

“Economics is uncertain because its fundamental subject matter is not money but human action. That's why economics is not the dismal science, it's no science at all.”

“I don't want to go out hunting for dismal topics to write about.”

“By 1951, television had already made such inroads on the income garnered by motion picture companies that the Golden Era which had prevailed until then was beginning to disintegrate. And by 1953, it had come to an end. Hollywood was a dismal, tragic place.”

“The left puts a lot of faith in a lot of people in the past that were dismal failures that they think are the greatest people who ever lived.”

“I find most 'sacred music' pretty dismal.”

“After I got hurt, animals to me were a great comfort, because I went through a very long, dismal period where I just felt completely useless and worthless because I really couldn't do anything after my injury. And I just hated that feeling. But animals, to me, were a great solace and great comfort.”