Twyla Tharp is not going to take orders from anyone, not even Mozart! — Robert Gottlieb Anyone Copy Share Image
An editor has to be selfless, and yet has also to be strong-minded. — Robert Gottlieb Editor Copy Share Image
Ballerinas are often divided into three categories: jumpers, turners and balancers. — Robert Gottlieb Categories Copy Share Image
The first movement ballerina should be a paradigm of strength and authority. — Robert Gottlieb Authority Copy Share Image
For me, the real pleasure in writing is in having an excuse to pursue my curiosity about people who have meant something… — Robert Gottlieb About Copy Share Image
Ballet Hispanico is far from Irish, and, though it has strong dancers, its Spanishness has always left me unconvinced. — Robert Gottlieb Always Copy Share Image
Editing requires you to be always open, always responding. It is very important, for example, not to allow yourself to want the… — Robert Gottlieb Allow Copy Share Image
What really matters is that 'Black Swan' deploys and exaggerates all the cliches of earlier ballet movies, especially 'The Red Shoes,' another… — Robert Gottlieb Another Copy Share Image
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. When a ballet company spends a lot of money on gimmicky pieces, it's stuck with… — Robert Gottlieb Ballet Copy Share Image
What 'War and Peace' is to the novel and 'Hamlet' is to the theater, Swan Lake' is to ballet - that is,… — Robert Gottlieb Art Copy Share Image
Despite the rigid classicism of the famous Paris Opera school and company, the French have done more than their share to unmoor… — Robert Gottlieb Business Copy Share Image
Many people say to me, particularly about my dance writing, 'It sounds just like you.' But it sounds just like me after… — Robert Gottlieb About Copy Share Image
'Black Swan' does what Hollywood movies have always done - it spends its energies on getting some surface things right while getting… — Robert Gottlieb Always Copy Share Image
Dickens was born in 1812 and died in 1870, having produced fifteen novels, many of which can confidently be called great, as… — Robert Gottlieb Accomplished Copy Share Image
'Porgy and Bess' has never been thought of as a dance show, and yet it's filled with dance. It uses dance to… — Robert Gottlieb Action Copy Share Image
When I was at Cambridge in the early fifties, there was a school nearby for training Army officers in Russian, and some… — Robert Gottlieb Army Copy Share Image
Paris, as always, is swarming with Americans, and these days, it's also swarming with hamburgers. Oddly, though, it's not typically the Americans… — Robert Gottlieb Also Copy Share Image
The best seat in the house often depends on the ballet. For instance, much of the first act of 'The Nutcracker' is… — Robert Gottlieb Act Copy Share Image
How can educated and sophisticated viewers react so differently to a work of art? Is it just Kulture Klash? No, since most… — Robert Gottlieb Art Copy Share Image
Martha Graham, along with George Balanchine, is one of the two commanding figures in 20th-century American dance. For those much younger than… — Robert Gottlieb Along Copy Share Image
What makes a publishing house great? The easy answer is the consistency with which it produces books of value over a lengthy… — Robert Gottlieb Answer Copy Share Image
You can usually tell how healthy a ballet company is by the degree of your interest in the middle ranks of the… — Robert Gottlieb Ballet Copy Share Image
Some readers took 'Heaven's My Destination' as a satire on Christianity and the Midwest, but today it reads like a loving comedy. — Robert Gottlieb Books Copy Share Image
Yes, bad or mediocre ballets can be useful to the dancers and temporarily fun for the audience, but in the long run,… — Robert Gottlieb Art Copy Share Image
'Ocean's Kingdom' is a fairy story with no subtext, no resonance - it's not about anything except its water-logged plot. — Robert Gottlieb About Copy Share Image
In today's world, it never looks good when you're suing somebody who earned $20,000 for writing a book over a period of… — Robert Gottlieb Book Copy Share Image
Gelsey Kirkland has had more than her share of demons, as her two distressing memoirs - and her violently checkered career -… — Robert Gottlieb Career Copy Share Image
'A Midsummer Night's Dream' is one of George Balanchine's greatest creations - and one of the greatest of all story ballets. — Robert Gottlieb Creations Copy Share Image
You have to surrender to a book. If you do, when something in it seems to be going askew, you are wounded.… — Robert Gottlieb Appear Copy Share Image
Editing is simply the application of the common sense of any good reader. That's why, to be an editor, you have to… — Robert Gottlieb Any Copy Share Image
Soledad Barrio is clearly a master - of thrilling steps and passionate movement. She stalks, she circles, she struts, she snaps her… — Robert Gottlieb Circles Copy Share Image
Shakespeare has always been up for grabs, and choreographers have every right to use him any way they choose. — Robert Gottlieb Always Copy Share Image
How do you rate works of genius? Partly by personal inclination, partly by accepted wisdom, partly by popularity. — Robert Gottlieb Accepted Copy Share Image
Writing happened to me. I didn't decide to start writing or to be a writer. I never wanted to be a writer. — Robert Gottlieb Decide Copy Share Image
Has there ever been a dance career with more ups and downs than Twyla Tharp's? Or with more varied ambitions? Or larger… — Robert Gottlieb Ambition Copy Share Image
Without a Prospero-Caliban relationship to balance the Prospero-Ariel one, 'The Tempest' loses much of its resonance. — Robert Gottlieb Balance Copy Share Image
Increasingly, editing means going to lunch. It means editing with a credit card, not with a pencil. — Robert Gottlieb Card Copy Share Image
Classics are constantly being re-imagined and transformed, and the originals are none the worse for it; they endure. — Robert Gottlieb Being Copy Share Image
I first read 'An American Tragedy' in college, and in my entire life I had never read anything so painful. — Robert Gottlieb American Copy Share Image
Every great dance company, even when it seems poised in perfect balance, needs constant renewal of both repertory and performers. — Robert Gottlieb Balance Copy Share Image
