In creative endeavors luck is a skill.
Interpretation
Luck in creativity comes from preparation and effort.
Twyla Tharp's quote suggests that what is often perceived as luck in creative processes is actually cultivated through practice, hard work, and a keen understanding of one's craft. It emphasizes that successful creative outcomes rely on the skill and readiness of the artist rather than mere chance.
In practice
During a keynote speech on innovation, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of preparation in successful creative ventures.
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.
(Whispered to a novice while standing in front of the convent library) Oh! I would have been sorry to have read all those books...If I had read them, I would have broken my head, and I would have wasted precious time that I could have employed very simply in loving God.
If you've been playing poker for half an hour and you still don't know who the patsy is, you're the patsy.
In seeking absolute truth we aim at the unattainable and must be content with broken portions.
Money doesn't change men. It merely unmasks them.
Throw away thy rod, throw away thy wrath; O my God, take the gentle path.
They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)
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