I never wanted to be a dancer. It's true! I wanted to be a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

My mother had gotten a job as a receptionist at a dancing school and had the idea that we should open our own dancing school; we did, and it prospered.

I arrived in Hollywood twenty pounds overweight and as strong as an ox. But if I put on a white tails and tux like Fred Astaire, I still looked like a truck driver.

Things danced on the screen do not look the way they do on the stage. On the stage, dancing is three-dimensional, but a motion picture is two-dimensional.

I think dancing is a man's game and if he does it well he does it better than a woman.

I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread.

I wanted to do new things with dance, adapt it to the motion picture medium.

When Ginger Rogers danced with Astaire, it was the only time in the movies when you looked at the man, not the woman.

I still find it almost impossible to relax for more than one day at a time.

The future of dance will always be tied up with the public's acceptance of the star. If they accept the star, then they'll accept the dance.

I took it as it came and it happened to be very nice.

Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.

Come on with the rain / I’ve a smile on my face.

If Fred Astaire is the Cary Grant of dance, I'm the Marlon Brando.

Any man who looks like a sissy while dancing is just a lousy dancer.

I got started dancing because I knew it was one way to meet girls.

You dance love, and you dance joy, and you dance dreams.

How do I keep fit? I lay down a lot.

I never will believe there is such a thing as a great actor.