Twyla Tharp Quotes

I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am.

The biggest pitfall to avoid is not writing. Not writing is really, really easy to do, especially if you're a young writer. The hope that elves will come in the night and finish it for you, is a very common one to have. That is my main recommendation - you have to write, and you have to finish what you write and beyond that, it's all detail.

The one ironclad rule is that I have to try. I have to walk into my writing room and pick up my pen every weekday morning.

I don't even subscribe to writer's block being a truthful thing. I've had writer's laziness quite often. But I think it's all about sitting down and facing down the blank page and doing it, and I've always been ok at that.

I go into my workroom seven mornings a week. There will only be one or two mornings a week where it seems to be going well, but to earn those days you have to go through slow, slodgy days where your mind feels like porridge.

The hardest part of doing anything creatively is just getting up and doing.

Everybody has a job to do, and you just know that every day you have to do what it takes to get there. Of course, everybody has those days where you don't feel like doing it. I'm just like anybody else in that respect. But there's a difference between not feeling like doing it and not doing it period.

Shut up and write anyway. Don't use anything as an excuse.

Writing is grunt work - you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith... talent is the smallest part of it.

[As a writer] you have to have the three D's: drive, discipline and desire. If you're missing any one of those three, you can have all the talent in the world, but it's going to be really hard to get anything done.

Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on

I don't believe in writer's block. Most of writer's block is having too much time on your hands. My mantra is that you can always edit a bad page; you can't edit a blank page.

Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.

An author who waits for the right 'mood' will soon find that 'moods' get fewer and fewer until they cease altogether.

A writer who waits for ideal conditions under which to work will die without putting a word to paper.

If you really want to do something, you'll find a way. If you don't, you'll find an excuse.

If I used being busy as an excuse not to run, I'd never run again. I have only a few reasons to keep on running, and a truckload of them to quit.

Decision-making takes care of goal-setting, but discipline also takes care of goal-getting. Decisions and discipline can't be separated; one is worthless without the other.

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 procrastinate, and I push writing to the last available moment, because I don't like to settle on anything. I guess you can call it indecision or you can call it holding out for inspiration.

You have to get through periods of being blocked. Everybody has them. For me, they have everything to do with self-doubt. It's never a matter of laziness or inability. It's just a matter of believing that what I'm doing is worthwhile, that it matters.I just make myself work. I just make myself go to work, whether I feel like it or not.

Inspiration and creativity, they ride right next to one anotherNot everyday are you going to wake up, the clouds are gonna part and the rays are gonna come downsometimes you gotta just get in there and force yourself to work and maybe something good will come out of it.

Growing up with my dad, whenever I wanted to try something, he would let me try it but he wouldn't let me give up on it. If soccer was too tough and I said, 'I'm going to quit,' he'd be like, 'No, you're going to try everything and keep going at it.'

I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.