If I played a tough kid on the street I couldn't go out there and get into fifth position. I had to dance like a tough kid on the street.

The only thing is that ordinarily when I do dance with [women] they think I am suddenly going to throw them over a table or twist them all around. All I want to do is one-two, one-two-three - a simple fox trot. But they're shaking with anticipation at the thought that I'm about to whip them around and then toss them on the roof.

I didn't want to move or act like a rich man. I wanted to dance in a pair of jeans. I wanted to dance like the man in the streets.

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.

When they do let them sustain on screen from head to toe, though, then you know they must think the person is a good dancer.

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