I always tell students that you've got to be practical. You do not need a dream. You need a purpose, something you can wake up to in the morning when the dream is dissipated.
Interpretation
Having a purpose is more important than merely dreaming; it provides motivation for daily life.
Twyla Tharp emphasizes the importance of practicality over idealism in this quote. While dreams can be inspiring, they often fade away in the face of reality. What truly sustains us and gives our lives direction is a clear purpose—something we can focus on and strive towards every day, especially when the initial excitement of our dreams begins to fade.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a graduation ceremony to motivate students to find their purpose.
Do I watch dancers as people? Yes, absolutely. Do I watch really good dancers for specifically who they are? Absolutely, because how they move best and how they look best is going to be most familiar to them, and not necessarily to me.
I am still pushing the edge of what my body can do.
No one is born with skill. It is developed through exercise, through repetition, through a blend of learning and reflection that's both painstaking and rewarding. And it takes time.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life.
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 that I often saw the films going with no sound. But I learned to tell stories through action.
Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft.
The rich man, when contributing to a permanent plan for the education of the poor, ought to reflect that he is providing for that of his own descendants; and the poor man who concurs in a provision for those who are not poor that at no distant day it may be enjoyed by descendants from himself. It does not require a long life to witness these vicissitudes of fortune.
As parents, we teach our kids about things we feel competent in. That's why so many parents don't teach their kids about money.
Really, the values under which my generation was raised in the '50s were immigrant values even though we weren't immigrants. The greatest thing you could be was a college-educated Negro.
Mastering the art of asking questions is essential to creativity and innovation. A More Beautiful Question should be standard reading for all aspiring design thinkers as well an inspiration to those searching for a life of curiosity and meaning.
I must remain a child and pupil of the Catechism, and am glad so to remain.
I work on the assumption, or let it be the fear, that the reader will stop reading if I stop being interesting.
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