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.
Interpretation
Persistence and adaptability are essential for overcoming challenges.
In this quote, Twyla Tharp emphasizes the necessity of resilience in the face of adversity. Instead of resisting circumstances that may seem insurmountable, individuals must learn to navigate through difficulties with creativity and determination, adjusting their paths as needed to keep progressing towards their goals.
In practice
In a motivational speech about facing life's challenges.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.
If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution.
When you get told that you have a disease, it's like: 'Really? Nah, it's all right. I don't believe that. It must be something else, I'm just making an excuse, let me push harder.'
I am deeply grieved by the loss of the crew of Columbia. I express my sincere condolences to the families and friends of the astronauts. I believe that their names will remain as the bright sparkling stars in the universe and will light the way for those who will follow them on the difficult roads of space exploration.
Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me.
I cry, sometimes, because I'm not 20 years younger, and I'm not healthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my writing to enter politics.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.