Life is about moving, it’s about change. And when things stop doing that they’re dead.
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.
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.
Reading is your first line of defense against an empty head.
You don’t get lucky without preparation, and there’s no sense in being prepared if you’re not open to the possibility of a glorious accident.
When you’re in a rut, you have to question everything except your ability to get out of it.
Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.
Without passion, all the skill in world won’t lift you above your craft
In dreams, anything can be anything, and everybody can do. We can fly, we can turn upside down, we can transform into anything.
I think a sense of humor will help get a girl out of a dark place.
Ultimately there is no such thing as failure. There are lessons learned in different ways.
Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.
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.
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.’
I always tell students that you’ve got to be practical. You do not need a dream. You need a purpose, something you can wake up to in the morning when the dream is dissipated.
I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.
Optimism with some experience behind it is much more energizing than plain old experience with a certain degree of cynicism.
What we want from modern dance is courage and audacity.
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.
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.
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.
‘The Creative Habit’ is basically about how you work alone, how you survive as a solitary artist. ‘The Collaborative Habit’ is obviously about surviving with other people.