An acclaimed American dancer and choreographer, Twyla Tharp has overseen performances for Broadway musicals and national ballets around the world. She ran her own dance troupe for 25 years, choreographed alongside the legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, and has won multiple awards for her work, including a MacArthur Fellowship (1992) and a National Medal of the Arts (2004). Her 2019 book, “Keep It Moving: Lessons for the Rest of Your Life,” urges readers to “get moving”— whether in the form of literal exercise or making decisions in their lives. With this quote, she encourages us to do exactly that, because taking action, even if only in a small way, gets us closer to our goals.

John Steinbeck had already received critical acclaim for “Of Mice and Men” when, in 1938, he began to write “The Grapes of Wrath.” Not one to rest on his laurels, the author was more driven than ever to create his best work. To that end, he kept what he called “the diary of a book,” later published as “Working Days.” Full of dogged determination and inspiration, as well as stinging self-doubt and self-reproach, the diary reveals the creative process throughout the 100 days Steinbeck spent writing the novel. He constantly reminds himself to keep going, to write each day no matter what, and to accept doubt and forge onward. “I am sure of one thing — it isn’t the great book I had hoped it would be,” he wrote in the diary. “It’s just a run-of-the-mill book.” He was wrong, of course. “The Grapes of Wrath” won a Pulitzer and earned Steinbeck the Nobel Prize.