Twyla Tharp quotes

Art is running away without ever leaving home. (Twyla Tharp)
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. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Creativity is an act of defiance. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Life is about moving, it's about change. And when things stop doing that they're dead. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Reading, conversation, environment, culture, heroes, mentors, nature – all are lottery tickets for creativity. Scratch away at them and you'll find out how big a prize you've won. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box. View quote
Twyla Tharp
The thing about creativity is, people are going to laugh at it. Get over it. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand. (Twyla Tharp)
I thought I had to make an impact on history. I had to become the greatest choreographer of my time. That was my mission. Posterity deals with us however it sees fit. But I gave it 20 years of my best shot. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I was privileged to be able to study a year with Martha Graham, the last year she was teaching. View quote
Twyla Tharp
In terms of individuals who actually inspired me, very few of the academic people that I had access to had that power over me. Maybe it's simply because I wasn't that committed to geometry. View quote
Twyla Tharp
In those days, male dancers were a rarer breed than women. as they are still today, A good male dancer, one as strong as we were, was very difficult to come by if you couldn't afford to pay them. View quote
Twyla Tharp
The necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you're going to pay for it personally. View quote
Twyla Tharp
The rewards of dancing are very different from choreographing. View quote
Twyla Tharp
There's this expression called postmodernism, which is kind of silly, and destroys a perfectly good word called modern, which now no longer means anything. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I don't think politicians should be allowed into power who are not familiar with their bodies, because that's where our bottom line is. And I know that they would make totally different decisions if they felt responsible simply for their own bodies. View quote
Twyla Tharp
Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism. View quote
Twyla Tharp
The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts. (Twyla Tharp)
I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I haven't wanted it to be excellent. View quote
Twyla Tharp
I think people want very much to simplify their lives enough so that they can control the things that make it possible to sleep at night. View quote
Twyla Tharp
The formal education that I received made little sense to me. View quote
Twyla Tharp
It is extremely arrogant and very foolish to think that you can ever outwit your audience. View quote
Twyla Tharp