If you only do what you know and do it very, very well, chances are that you won't fail. You'll just stagnate, and your work will get less and less interesting, and that's failure by erosion
Interpretation
Sticking to what you know can lead to stagnation rather than growth.
Twyla Tharp's quote emphasizes the importance of stepping outside one's comfort zone. While excelling at what you already know can lead to a sense of security, it may ultimately result in a lack of innovation and engagement, creating a slow decline in the quality of your work, which she describes as failure by erosion.
In practice
A motivational speaker might use this quote to encourage a room full of professionals to pursue new skills.
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 things you have that money won't buy are the things that will enable you to get more of the things that money will buy.
The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures.
When I went into the Montreal Games, nobody expected much out of me.
The surest path to success is to surround yourself with brilliant women
For every talent that poverty has stimulated it has blighted a hundred.
I won from Mr. Jeffries because I outclassed him in every department of the fighting game. Before I entered the ring I was certain I would be the victor. I never changed my mind at any time.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.