Twyla Tharp

“Art is an investigation.”

“When I was a kid, toe dancing and toe shoes had a meaning in our culture as a serious kind of art.”

“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.”

“There are very few critics who have historical context or authority.”

“I always find that the best collaborations are when you work with people that know what they're doing, and you leave them alone to do it.”

“Reading is your first line of defense against an empty head.”

“I look for dancers who have all the technique in the world. But they must be dancers who are open-minded, who are willing to forget that they know anything. They also have to be gorgeous; they must have a clear image of themselves and strong personalities.”

“I'm not one who divides music, dance or art into various categories. Either something works, or it doesn't.”

“There is obviously a power and a truth in action that doesn't lie, which words easily can do.”

“I think that anyone who's pushed to do the very best that they can is privileged. It's a luxury.”

“Schubert had arguably the same melodic gift as Mozart, but even less support. He didn't have the early exposure, never got to travel anywhere, and yet generated and amassed a body of work that grew and developed and is very profound.”

“A commission is an invitation to fall in love.”

“My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity, and there really was no judgment.”

“'Bum's Rush' is a piece about timing, and everything that's in the piece needs to be with the piece. If people are missing, or marking, or unable to use their voices, the impulses that prompt the action are lost, and its logic crumbles.”

“Dance has never been a particularly easy life, and everybody knows that.”

“What I do remember is visualization of the sound of music, seeing bodies in movement in relation to how music sounded, because my mother practiced at the keyboard a lot and I also went to her lessons. As a two year old, three year old I remember seeing things in movement.”

“My father always said, 'I don't care if you're a ditch digger, as long as you're the best ditch digger in the world.'”

“I do not watch television, never have.”

“Let me put it this way: I would like to direct a successful film. An unsuccessful film I would not like to direct. Films are very difficult.”

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