Daily Inspiration Quote by Paul Taylor

Paul Taylor’s line lands like a quiet anti-myth for anyone raised on the idea that real artists “live and breathe” their craft. Coming from a choreographer often framed as one of modern dance’s great visionaries, the admission is almost deflationary on purpose: he refuses the romantic script that creativity is constant, ecstatic devotion. Instead, Taylor describes dance as work you approach at the last responsible moment, the way a sane person approaches taxes or a hard conversation.

The intent isn’t to diminish dance; it’s to protect it. By not “living” in dance all day, Taylor draws a boundary between the studio and the self. That boundary reads as a survival tactic in an art form that can swallow a body whole, especially for a dancer whose instrument is literally his aging, breakable flesh. Procrastination here isn’t laziness so much as psychological pacing: a way to keep rehearsal charged with urgency, to arrive with appetite rather than burnout.

The subtext is also a sly flex. Only someone with deep confidence can afford to say he doesn’t brood over dance. Taylor implies that craft isn’t sustained by constant inspiration but by showing up, late or not, and letting rigor do its job. In a culture that performs hustle as identity, his restraint feels almost radical: the dance happens in rehearsal, onstage, in the doing. The rest of life gets to be life.