Twyla Tharp Quotes

Our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable.

No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.

Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.

Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits.

dance is simply the refinement of human movement - walking, running, and jumping. We are all experts. There should be no art form more accessible than dance, yet no art is more mystifying in the public imagination.

Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.

Without the little ideas, there are no big ideas.

Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.

If you only do what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won't fail. You'll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that's failure by erosion

Every work of art needs a spine – an underlying theme, a motive for coming into existence. It doesn't have to be apparent to the audience. But you need it at the start of the creative process to guide you and keep you going.

Creativity requires quite a lot of faith - not just in yourself but also in the knowledge that you have the right to proceed, even when you may not know exactly what you're doing.

Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.

Doing is better than not doing, and if you do something badly you'll learn to do it better.

Creativity is an act of defiance.

Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.

Creativity is more about taking the facts, fictions, and feelings we store away and finding new ways to connect them. What we're talking about here is metaphor. Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art, if it is not art itself. Metaphor is our vocabulary for connecting what we are experiencing now with what we have experienced before. It's not only how we express what we remember , it's how we interpret it - for ourselves and others.

Dancers are allowed, indeed encouraged, to remain children forever.

The more you know, the better you can imagine.

When you stimulate your body, your brain comes alive in ways you can't simulate in a sedentary position.

Solitude is an unavoidable part of creativity. Self-reliance is a happy by-product.

I read for growth, firmly believing that what you are today and what you will be in five years depends on two things: the people you meet and the books you read.

Creativity is not just for artists. It's for businesspeople looking for a new way to close a sale; it's for engineers trying to solve a problem; it's for parents who want their children to see the world in more than one way.

Art is an investigation.

You don't get into the mood to create – it's discipline.

I'm often asked, 'Where do you get your ideas?' ...It's like asking, 'Where do you find air to breathe?' Ideas are all around you.