The Creative Habit Learn It and Use It for Life

What makes a person creative? It's not just a dilemma for artists, or aspiring artists. Creativity enters into so many facets of everyday life--deciding what meal to cook, constructing a persuasive memo, or imparting knowledge to a child. In this straight-forward and life-changing book, Twyla Tharp shares the overriding lesson learned during her remarkable thirty-five-year career: creativity is not a mystery. It is not a gift from on high. It is the product of hard work and preparation, of knowing one's aims and one's subject, of learning from approaches taken in the past. Creativity is a habit, and it is within everyone's reach. The Creative Habit is both personal and practical, combining anecdotes from Tharp's life with easy and effective exercises that she uses when facing a creative rut. This inspiring, encouraging guide will show every reader--from the author facing a bad case of writer's block, to the business person looking to secure a deal--how to achieve his or her fullest creative potential.

Twyla Tharp, one of America’s greatest choreographers began her career in 1965, and has created more than 130 dances for her company as well as for the Joffrey Ballet, the New York City Ballet, the Paris Opera Ballet, London’s Royal Ballet, Denmark’s Royal Ballet, and American Ballet Theatre. She has won two Emmy Awards for television’s Baryshnikov by Tharp, and a Tony Award for the Broadway musical Movin’ Out. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1993 and was made an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1997. She holds nineteen honorary degrees, most recently from Harvard University. She lives and works in New York City.