Like an athlete, [dance] is an everyday job. You have to stay in shape - unless you just want to loaf through a couple of hoofing routines. But that just didn't satisfy me.

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

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

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

Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.

Mentally, I write myself a little story. Of course, sometimes you have a song that says, "Do that." My best example is Singin' in the Rain. Arthur Freed had insisted that the song should be in the picture, but he was very anxious about it.

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.