Don’t sign on for more problems than you must. Resist the temptation to involve yourself in other people’s zones of expertise and responsibility. Monitor troublesome situations if you need to, but don’t insert yourself unless you’re running out of time and a solution is nowhere in sight. In short, stifle your inner control freak.

In the end, there is no ideal condition for creativity. What works for one person is useless for another. The only criterion is this: Make it easy on yourself. Find a working environment where the prospect of wrestling with your muse doesn't scare you, doesn't shut you down. It should make you want to be there, and once you find it, stick with it. To get the creative habit, you need a working environment that's habit-forming. All preferred working states, no matter how eccentric, have one thing in common: When you enter into them, they compel you to get started.

This is not a pleasant route for many young people to consider. You have to be either hopelessly passionate, or very stupid.

If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.

I was valedictorian. Did I enjoy going to school? I hated it. It wasn't a choice on my part, it was expected.

I feel I can handle the architecture of dance as well as anybody.

You don't get into the mood to create – it's discipline.