Twyla Tharp

“This is the strange thing: Dancers don't age.”

“At the ballet classes I took when I first came to New York, I would see great dancers like Cynthia Gregory and Lupe Serrano. I would look at them and study what they could do, and what I cou...”

“I realize that dancers have worked long and hard for standards. However, on occasion, I think that it's good to examine one's heart and ask why are we dancing.”

“I often say that in making dances I can make a world where I think things are done morally, done democratically, done honestly.”

“I think a sense of humor will help get a girl out of a dark place.”

“The necessity to constantly turn in an excellent performance, to be absolutely wedded to this dedication and this ideal means that as a child you're going to pay for it personally.”

“I started formal piano training when I was 4. From there I had little violas, and I had dancing lessons of every sort and description, and painting lessons. I had German. And shorthand.”

“I've read probably 25 or 30 books by Balzac, all of Tolstoy - the novels and letters - and all of Dickens. I learned my craft from these guys.”

“To survive, you've got to keep wheedling your way. You can't just sit there and fight against odds when it's not going to work. You have to turn a corner, dig a hole, go through a tunnel - a...”

“There is a moral dimension, for me, in anything that's any good.”

“My father always said, 'I don't care if you're a ditch digger, as long as you're the best ditch digger in the world.'”

“My mother was a dominant force in my life. She had a very specific idea about education, which was: you should know everything about everything. It was quite simple. There was no exclusivity...”

“My favorite audience is everybody. I worked in a drive-in theater from the time I was 8 years old until I went to college, and I'm accustomed to everybody can buy a ticket and everybody shou...”

“I grew up in a drive-in theater, from the time I was 8, working in a snack bar watching four features every week. It was silent theater in the sense that this was a drive-in, which meant tha...”

“I have not wanted to intimidate audiences. I have not wanted my dancing to be an elitist form. That doesn't mean I haven't wanted it to be excellent.”

“I've always felt compelled to explore range, because, as far as I know, we're only here once. So let's see how much we can encompass.”

“I don't hate language. I have my own language, but I also enjoy the English language. Obviously, you don't read a lot of literature and not care about language.”

“Who a dancer is physically feeds into character for me. Always has.”

“I work because I have issues and questions and feelings and thoughts that I want to have a look at. I'm not in need of, or wanting, particularly, to know what other folk are up to.”

“The formal education that I received made little sense to me.”