Twyla Tharp Quotes

A scientist, an artist, a citizen is not like a child who needs papa methodology and mama rationality to give him security and direction, he can take care of himself, for he is the inventor not only of laws, theories, pictures, plays, forms of music, ways of dealing with his fellow man, institutions, but also entire world view, he is the inventor of entire forms of like.

The New England spirit does not seek solutions in a crowd; raw light and solitariness are less dreaded than welcomed as enhancers of our essential selves.

We grow up thinking that the best answer is in someone else's brain. Much of our education is an elaborate game of 'guess what's in the teacher's head?' What the world really needs to know right now is what kind of dreams and ideas are in your head.

Genius is inconsiderate, self-relying, and, like unconscious beauty, without any intention to please.

For me, a writer should be more like a lighthouse keeper, just out there by himself. He shouldn't get his ideas from other people all around him.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original.

The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.

I don't necessarily love all the collaborations that I've done; the more I work with other people, the more I realize that I want to work with myself.

For me, university was a bit of a rebellious streak. I love teachers but I'm inherently a bit of an anarchist and don't trust you because you're my teacher. Somewhere around my second or third year, I realized as an artist that it's up to us to choose our path, and there's nothing wrong with being given many different tools to put in your tool bag.

Atlanta has become and has always been a place where you create your own universe.

I've got no problem being on my own. I like the way my imagination works.

For some, being involved in a scene is a great thing because the social element can drive creativity. For me, though, it's never really been like that. It's the opposite. I've always had this instinct to escape.

What would you be like if you were the only person in the world? If you want to be truly happy you must be that person.

Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone.

Born to myself, I like myself alone.

It is a poor wit who lives by borrowing the words, decisions, mien, inventions and actions of others.

Almost everything I've done, I've done through my own creativity.

All thoughtful men are solitary and original in themselves.

I am sure of this, that by going much alone a man will get more of a noble courage in thought and word than from all the wisdom that is in books.

One's better off alone, and yet there are so many things that are impossible to fathom on one's own. In fact it's a terrible business and the task is a hard one.

Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions.

... when I am really alone some power seems to grow in me. ... Conjugality made me think of a three-legged race, where two people cannot go fast and keep tripping each other because their two legs are tied together.

The greater the spirit, the more one is alone.

Beethoven’s music always struck me. Always. He had this fire you know. I remember reading this story of him going deaf and pushing himself into self-isolation and that’s where he became himself. And to me that was, wow. Don’t let anything poison your individuality. Be away, break away and look in not outward.