For me, half the joy of achieving has been the struggle and the fight, the pitting myself against the world and all its competition - and winning.

My birth neither shook the German Empire nor caused much of an upheaval in the home. It pleased mother, caused father a certain amount of pride and my elder brother the usual fraternal jealousy of a hitherto only son.

I turned down the first script offered to me, and the second. I lay on my back one day under an umbrella, in the garden, reading the third, and wondered why I had turned down the first.

I have no illusions about my art. I am what the public made me and, consequently, I am not likely to forget my debt to them.

So many dancers paint. I used to paint. I started again recently. While I was dancing, I was very busy with my career. Start something else that makes use of your creative ability because if you don't you will die inside as a person.

A career is a job you love, right? That's what a career should be. If you're in a job that you hate, you should quit. That's the way I look at it. I'm in a job that I love, so I'm going to make it my career.

For too long, Missouri has been run by career politicians, owned by corrupt consultants, high-paid lobbyists and special interests.

Has there ever been a dance career with more ups and downs than Twyla Tharp's? Or with more varied ambitions? Or larger ambition?