Terry Tempest Williams Quotes

Repetitiveness and discipline are the secrets of cake decorating. The art comes from the meticulous technique, the way it does for a dancer.

We called him Tortoise because he taught us.

We wait for the tortoises to come. We wait for that lady who walks them. That’s how art works. It’s never a jackrabbit, or a racehorse. It’s the tortoises that hold all the secrets. We’ve got to be patient enough to wait for them.

INSTRUCTORS CAN impart a fraction of the teaching. It is through your own devoted practice that the mysteries of the Art of Peace are brought to life.

There is only laughing across the land as the car moves you along, on your way someplace with love in the car.

My favorite animal is the turtle. The reason is that in order for the turtle to move, it has to stick its neck out.

That's what education should be," I said, "the art of orientation. Educators should devise the simplest and most effective methods of turning minds around. It shouldn't be the art of implanting sight in the organ, but should proceed on the understanding that the organ already has the capacity, but is improperly aligned and isn't facing the right way.

So much in a revolution is nothing but waiting.

To go faster you must slow down.

The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.

Without dance, a man can do nothing.

Language is what books do very well and movement is what movies does very well.

For me becoming a painter was an Everest, in terms of what I thought a painter was. There are many roads to becoming an artist. For me it wasn't art school. I didn't have that go to art school and then get a gallery. It's more like, how deep is your inner library to cull from. It's certainly not about technical prowess, just about depth of investigation. It takes time. I had 15 years of painting under my belt before my first New York show. I was glad to have that. It's a good thing to spend your twenties getting your craft.

Dance is communication, and so the great challenge is to speak clearly, beautifully and with inevitability.

The shy man will not learn; the impatient man should not teach.

The health of a nation, a society, can be determined by the art it demands. We have insisted of television and our movies that they not have anything to do with anything, that they be our never-never land; and if we demand this same function of our live theatre, what will be left of the visual-auditory arts - save the dance (in which nobody talks) and music (to which nobody listens)?

Not only was [Edwin Land] one of the great inventors of our time but, more important, he saw the intersection of art and science and business and built an organization to reflect that.

Poetry has a way of teaching one what one needs to know ... if one is honest.

Walking isn't a lost art: one must, by some means, get to the garage.

The secret to dancing is that it is about everything except dancing.

Patience wins the race.

We have the right of revolution. Revolution does not always have to be weapons and warfare; it's also about revolutionary ideas.

What is true stillness? Stillness in movement.

We must not contradict, but instruct him that contradicts us; for a madman is not cured by another running mad also.

The essence of fighting is the art of moving at the right time.