Twyla Tharp Quotes

If I had more skill in what I'm attempting, I wouldn't need so much courage

Art stands on the shoulders of craft, which means that to get to the art, you must master the craft.

The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.

The sum of all technical knowledge cannot make a master contract player.

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.

The expression of beauty is in direct ratio to the power of conception the artist has acquired.

I'm very good at what I do, and I don't turn my hand to something unless I'm very good at it, frankly.

I'm not a great player, but I'm a damn good one.

The more experience you have, the more confidence you get and the more ready you are.

Where a new guy may only know one or two ways to do something, I know all of the moves, and I've forgotten more stuff than the newer guys might even know.

Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art.

They [say] everybody's creative. Well, everybody is. But any real creativity has to rest on a basis of an acquired technique and an acquired knowledge; you can't be creative in a void, or you just get a mess.

Creativity is not a substitute for competence.

You're only kidding yourself if you put creativity before craft.

The future belongs to the competent. It belongs to those who are very, very good at what they do. It does not belong to the well meaning.

You have to know your craft. I find that most people who are very, very successful know their craft and have done the research.

Genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.

An expert is anyone who can already do what we want to do.

Technical Expertise is composed of all the little and large bits of technique known to the skilled painter, musician, actor, any artist. He adds these things together in his basic presentation. He knows what he is doing. And how to do it. And then to his he adds his message.

You have to get comfortable [with your work], you really have to know what you're doing, and it has to be almost boring to you to be able to do it well.

Self-expression without craft is for toddlers.

Many have genius, but, wanting art, are forever dumb. The two must go together to form the great poet, painter, or sculptor.

Even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets; because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom.

If I know everything around the situation, all the facts, I feel like I can handle just about anything.