Twyla Tharp
Dancing is like bank robbery, it takes split-second timing.Collection: Dance
Obligation is a flimsy base for creativity, way down the list behind passion, courage, instinct, and the desire to do something great.Collection: Passion
We're a machine and we have to be worked in the same way we have to be fed.Collection: Dance
There's a paradox in the notion that creativity should be a habit. We think of creativity as a way of keeping everything fresh and new, while habit implies routine and repetition. That paradox intrigues me because it occupies the place where creativity and skill rub up against each other.Collection: Inspirational
Metaphor is the lifeblood of all art.Collection: Art
Whether or not God has kissed your brow, you still have to work. Without learning and preparation, you won't know how to harness the power of that kiss.Collection: Kissing
There are as many forms of memory as there are ways of perceiving, and every one of them is worth mining for inspiration.Collection: Memories
You have to believe there's something at the other side. And you have to have faith in yourself. You have to think that you have the tools to accomplish it.Collection: Inspirational
Dance is the stepchild of the arts.Collection: Dance
I've always thought my creative life began the moment my mother called me Twyla.Collection: Mother
It takes skill to bring something you've imagined into the world: to use words to create believable lives, to select the colors and textures of paint to represent a haystack at sunset, to combine ingredients to make a flavorful dish. No one is born with that skill. It is developed through exercise, through repitition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time. . . . If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.Collection: Art
Mastery is an elusive concept. You never know when you achieve it absolutely and it may not help you to feel you've attained it. We can recognize it more readily in others than we can in ourselves. We have to discover our own definition of it.Collection: May
A lot of people insisted on a wall between modern dance and ballet, that the two disciplines were totally separate, and if you did one, you couldn’t do the other. I’m beginning to think that walls are very unhealthy things.Collection: Dance
The routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightening bold of inspiration, maybe more. And this routine is available to everyone.Collection: Inspirational
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.Collection: Inspirational
Failing, and learning from it, is necessary. Unil you've done it, you're missing an important piece of your creative arsenal.Collection: Creative
While most people in the arts think they have to be constantly looking forward to be edgy and creative....the real secret of creativity is to go back and remember.Collection: Art
Concentrate: you can't have it all.Collection: Concentration
Everything is raw material. Everything is relevant. Everything is usable. Everything feeds into my creativity. But without proper preparation, I cannot see it, retain it, and use it.Collection: Happiness
When you're in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.Collection: Ruts
If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.Collection: Art
I had received my first establishment grants in response to applications filed the year before. To the pages of baffling forms I had simply attached a handwritten note saying, 'I make dances, not applications. Send the money. Love, Twyla.Collection: Years
The first steps of a creative act are like groping in the dark: random and chaotic, feverish and fearful, a lot of busy-ness with no apparent or definable end in sight.Collection: Creativity
Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you. If you're generous to someone, if you do something to help him out, you are in effect making him lucky. This is important. It's like inviting yourself into a community of good fortune.Collection: Opposites
I cannot overstate how much a generous spirit contributes to good luck. Look at the luckiest people around you, the ones you envy, the ones who seem to have destiny falling habitually into their laps. If they're anything like the fortunate people I know, they're prepared, they're always working at their craft, they're alert, they involve their friends in their work, and they tend to make others feel lucky to be around them.Collection: Fall
In order to be creative, you have to know how to prepare to be creative.....A lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day. By putting themselves into that environment, they begin their creative day.Collection: Order
Whether it's a painter finding his way each morning to the easel, or a medical researcher returning daily to the laboratory, the routine is as much a part of the creative process as the lightning bolt of inspiration, maybe more.Collection: Morning
When I'm in the studio, when I'm warm, when I'm what people call improvising, I feel a very special connection. I feel the most right. I don't want to become too mystic about this, but things feel as though they're in the best order at that particular moment.Collection: Order
Skill is how you close the gap between what you can see in your mind's eye and what you can produce; the more skill you have, the more sophisticated and accomplished your ideas can be. With absolute skill comes absolute confidence.Collection: Eye
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.Collection: Passion
The more you fail in private, the less you will fail in public.Collection: Failing
The irony of multitasking is that it's exhausting: when you're doing two or three things simultaneously, you use more energy than the sum of energy required to do each task independently. You're also cheating yourself because your're not doing anything excellently. You're compromising your virtuosity. In the words of T. S. Elliot, you're 'distracted from distractions by distractions'.Collection: Cheating
When you're in a groove, you're not spinning your wheels; you're moving forward in a straight and narrow path without pauses or hitches. You're unwavering, undeviating, and unparalleled in your purpose. A groove is the best place in the world. Because when you are in it, you have the freedom to explore, where everything you question leads you to new avenues and new routes.Collection: Moving
Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a boxCollection: Thinking