Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.

Kids talk to me and say they want to do musicals again because they've studied the tapes of the old films. We didn't have that. We thought once we had made it, even on film, it was gone except for the archives.

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

At the time the quickest way to establish yourself as an American was to throw a little bit of tap into your dance - even when it wasn't called for. But what also helped me was the fact that I was dancing in roles that I had played.

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

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

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