I didn't want to be a dancer... I just did it to work my way through college. But I was always an athlete and gymnast, so it came naturally.

Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.

In fact, I wasn't going to dance in Xanadu, but several journalists told me that Olivia Newton-John kept saying how sad she was that she wouldn't get the chance to dance with me. So I finally said, "All right, throw in a number." But I'm through with dancing.

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

I think Twyla [Tharp] has a lot to say. The great thing about Twyla is that she continues to explore.

America now has more and better dancers than they have ever had in the history of the country, but that won't account for the public wants to see.