Quotes

Fred Astaire will never say, though he's always asked, which of his dancing ladies was his favorite partner. If you ask me, he preferred the solo turns.

I was called a bookish child. Mother sent me to a ballet teacher in Cincinnati when I was nine years old. I guess I was an awkward child and the family wanted me to be graceful. When I found out I liked to dance and people seemed to like to watch me, I was determined to go places.

I don't remember if I liked [dancing] because I was good at it, or if I was good at it because I liked it. Maybe a little of both.

The six boys who danced with me in this show escorted me to the depot and their farewell wish was to remember me dancing, so right there on the station platform we went into our routine as best we could under the circumstances. Naturally we attracted quite a crowd and we got so involved in our dancing, I almost missed the train but the boys managed to get me on just as the train pulled out.

I'm a dancer and I can never really get away from my career. On the days when I don't dance at the studio, I have to practice for at least an hour in the evening to keep in shape. Dancing is like breathing -- missing a day doing either is very bad.

[on raising eyebrows on Oscar night 1958, wearing a form-fitting gold lame sheath] Why not? It's the way Oscar dresses.

[when she was ill in 1977 and interviewed in a tabloid] I'm retired. I stopped when I was ahead. I don't need my work anymore, and I don't need the applause.