Twyla Tharp Quotes

The first two, three, four weeks are wasted. I just show up in front of the computer. Show up, show up, show up, and after a while the muse shows up, too. If she doesn't show up invited, eventually she just shows up.

I get so many ideas for songs, but I'm so seldom disciplined enough to sit down and crank them out.

Most people wait for the muse to turn up. That's terribly unreliable. I have to sit down and pursue the muse by attempting to work.

Don't fall into the trap of having to have everything perfect to write or wait until the mood strikes you. If you want it as a job, treat it like a job, and just as you don't go to work only when you feel like it, you have to condition yourself to sit and write even when the ideas don't flow.

I like the busy-ness of office life. What I discovered, to my surprise, is that I love the solitary nature of writing. What happens is that you write when you're ready.

One reason I don't suffer Writer's Block is that I don't wait on the muse, I summon it at need.

If you really want to write, then shut yourself in a room, close the door, and WRITE. If you don't want to write, do something else. It's as simple as that.

When I'm the happiest, my desk is not neat. It has lots of pens and the books I love. It gets messy when I'm in the flow. So many houses are so neat.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.

Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

I'm a very early riser, and so I like to get up and try hard to write before the day even really gets started. Just me and a pot of coffee - I find I can get a lot done that way.

One of the benefits of having an audience is that it requires a regimen, a need to create on a regular basis. I don't believe in waiting for the muse to visit.

I have no discipline, which is a horrible flaw for any writer. Once I'm well started on a project, though, then I'm addicted to it all day long. When it's done, I collapse and have to really kick myself to start a new one.

I write fifteen hours a day, stopping at Oprah-o'clock.

I like having a studio to go to. It's like having a job.

Getting to my typewriter is something I push myself to, but once I am working, I work hard.

Inspiration is intention obeyed.

I am a person of high energy. That, and I sit down and I write when I get an idea - I put other things aside.

Don't wait for the muse. She has a lousy work ethic. Writers just write.

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair, or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes and a writing implement.

I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.

I don't know where my ideas come from, but I know where they come to. They come to my desk, and if I'm not there, they go away again.

There are days when I'll write for 15 minutes and have to give up and move around, and I'll write another paragraph and give up again. On other days I get intensely - focused on the process, sit down at 8 A.M. and won't get up until 8 P.M.

I've always found it best to have a routine. I go to my study at the same time every day and climb into my bay window. I may not be inspired every day, but on the days I am, I need to be in place to write. If I'm not particularly inspired, I'll revise or do research or correspondence.