Quotes from Twyla Tharp

A commission is an invitation to fall in love.

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.

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.

I used to say to myself, 'Well, in the old days everybody danced because they loved to dance, and there was none of this professional garbage going on about how much can you get for this or that or the other, or any of the kinds of things that insecurity can sometimes promote. Sometimes it's for the wrong reasons.'

There's the tradition of the 19th-century ballets, and the 20th century has had a difficult time with that tradition. And it's had a difficult time with many components of the Romantic imagination because of modernism.

Any comic is a tragic soul. Comedy is one of the things that allows one to survive. Particularly if one has been in the process of separating off the emotions, it's one place you can process them.

I find that dancers are only well trained in ballet these days.

Things change all the time, so why do people make such a philosophical to-do that things are constantly in transition?

The ballet needs to tell its own story in such a way it can be received without having to be translated into language.

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

If you're speaking of love, you really must include the element of uncertainty - and perhaps it's best approached as the art of constant maintenance.

In the end all collaborations are love stories.

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.

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.

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.

I was fortunate to love men, so I could put them on stage and make roles for them, and move through their bodies in a way that they enjoy doing...

I don't judge. Judgment is not my business. Existing is my business.

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.

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.

Everyone has a talent. It's simply a question of good discipline, of the good fortune to have an education that meshes with that talent, and a lot of luck.

What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity.

When I look at the people who are the guiding figures in modern dance, I think, 'This does not look to me like the way I want to spend my days.'

I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly.

The ultimate point of a piece for me is that it drives the next one. Does it open new doors? That's the success of a piece.