Marjana Tharp Quotes

When you understand what's involved in winning, as do professional gamblers, you'll tend to bet more during a winning streak and less during a losing streak. However, the average person does exactly the opposite: he or she bets more after a series of losses and less after a series of wins. ~ Van K. Tharp

They've made the mistake of thinking that power over others and leadership are the same thing. ~ Tim Tharp

Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources. ~ Twyla Tharp

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'. ~ Twyla Tharp

One clear difference between art and commercial work is that commercial work is exploitive: the work may be high quality but the intention is to sell product or tickets. Art exists with or without ticket sales. ~ Twyla Tharp

Critics should be looked at simply as commentators. ~ Twyla Tharp

It's vital to establish some rituals-automatic but decisive patterns of behavior-at the beginning of the creative process, when you are most at peril of turning back, chickening out, giving up, or going the wrong way. ~ Twyla Tharp

In the end all collaborations are love stories. ~ Twyla Tharp

By making the start of the sequence automatic, they replace doubt and fear with comfort and routine. ~ Twyla Tharp

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. ~ Twyla Tharp

it's not too late for me. ~ Tim Tharp

I was used to dancing, but only when someone told you what to do. So in the nightclub I was all over the place, I combined everything. Street dance, modern dance, a bit of jazz and ballet, I was Twyla Tharp, I was Alvin Ailey, I was Michael Jackson. I didn't care, I was free. ~ Madonna Ciccone

The artist doesn't really think about consequences - he or she does the work, stands back and looks at and thinks, 'Hmm, that could have worked better like this.' But as a person who needs to sell tickets to do the next work, one needs to analyze how it does or does not hit its mark. ~ Twyla Tharp

After so many years, I've learned that being creative is a full-time job with its own daily patterns. That's why writers, for example, like to establish routines for themselves. ~ Twyla Tharp

Life is about moving, it's about change. And when things stop doing that they're dead. ~ Twyla Tharp

What else am I going to do, let the girl sit there on a railing in the moonlight thinking she's damned to go dudeless for the rest of her life? ~ Tim Tharp

Unfortunately, I think we've probably all had the experience that if we're in a relationship where one of the partners is doing it 'my' way, that relationship is not going to survive. ~ Twyla Tharp

I never studied with Balanchine, but his work was very important to me. ~ Twyla Tharp

The disasteris not the money, although the money will be missed. The disaster is the disrespect
this belief that the arts are dispensable, that they're not critical to a culture's existence. ~ Twyla Tharp

People often say to me, 'I don't know anything about dance.' I say, 'Stop. You got up this morning, and you're walking. You are an expert.' ~ Twyla Tharp

If I didn't believe in myself as a dancer, I wouldn't choreograph. ~ Twyla Tharp

I do not watch television, never have. ~ Twyla Tharp

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. ~ Twyla Tharp

I don't hate language. I have my own language, but I also enjoy the English language. Obviously, you don't read a lot of literature and not care about language. ~ Twyla Tharp

To survive, you've got to keep wheedling your way. You can't just sit there and fight against odds when it's not going to work. You have to turn a corner, dig a hole, go through a tunnel - and find a way to keep moving. ~ Twyla Tharp

She's still smiling her little smile, and it strikes me that, actually, she is drunk, not on alcohol, but on her St. Louis hopes and dreams. I wouldn't sober her up for anything, but she doesn't need me anymore. She can hang on to her dreams by herself now. ~ Tim Tharp

Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism. ~ Twyla Tharp

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. ~ Twyla Tharp

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

Venturing out of your comfort zone may be dangerous, yet do it anyways because our ability to grow is directly proportional to an ability to entertain the uncomfortable. ~ Twyla Tharp

That type of dream just kind of wears out with time like a favorite old T-shirt. One day, it's nothing but tatters and all you can do is throw it over on the rag pile with the others. ~ Tim Tharp

You don't have a really good idea until you combine two little ideas. ~ Twyla Tharp

We all want something that sticks ~ Tim Tharp

Are you sure you have enough sweetener in that? I could offer to conscript the rest of the cubes from the galley for you. ~ K.L. Tharp

Life is made out of Thursday afternoons. You just keep having them one after the other and let everything else take care of itself. ~ Tim Tharp

I guarantee there is nothing more depressing than knowing morons have complete power over you. ~ Tim Tharp