Jean-Luc Godard said that cinema is the truth 24 frames a second. I think cinema is lies 24 frames a second.

When Fred Astaire danced, everything in this world was perfect.

What I got, unconsciously, from admiring Fred Astaire was that he didn't want what he was doing to look difficult. What was difficult, in my opinion, was making it look so genuine, so effortless. I equally have tried to remain unseen on the screen.

My childhood wasn't very happy. It's a long, grim story about being a Jew in a small southern town.

There was never any point in my life when I wasn't called Mr. Donen. I'm told my first words were, 'Call me Mr. Donen.' But I suspect that's apocryphal. My mother, Mrs. Donen, tended to exaggerate.

You see, it took me so long, it was such a struggle, to move myself out of musicals - because I had had a success, nobody wanted to allow me to direct a non-musical picture. It was so hard. And the only way I could get it going was to become a producer myself.

I don't have too many friends. I have only a few people who I really love.