I started dancing when I saw Fred Astaire in 'Flying Down to Rio,' at approximately nine years old. Fred Astaire influenced me, more than anything, to be in 'show business.

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

I think of myself as a meat-and-potatoes kind of director.

What we think about Paris is a part of how we feel about it. Our idea of Paris is our idea and we don't know that that's not necessarily the way it really is. It feels so real.

I can still dance a little, yes, but I like singing better. It's more fun.

What we all like in life, I think, is the challenge of making something... that is not easy to do.

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

You know, sound was still a fairly new thing when I came into movies. And the reason musicals happened is because of sound. They could put music in the picture! That's how it all began.

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.

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

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

I had a dream about you last night... You turned red, then green, and then blue. You told me you were trying to fit in with the m&m's.

To retain our dignity, we must sometimes refuse to live life at any cost

To her credit, though, Trace didn't lose her famous temper, not at that moment. At eighteen she was already expert at the older woman's art of fermenting rage, conserving it, for later use.

Before any exposure on TV, I'm a real chef.

I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.

Motivation is everything. You can do the work of two people, but you can't be two people. Instead, you have to inspire the next guy down the line and get him to inspire his people.

I detest racialism, because I regard it as a barbaric thing, whether it comes from a black man or a white man.

If I wasn't involved in this hip-hop sh*t, I'd probably be breakin' the law to eat and feed my family and maintain the lifestyle that I'm used to.

Poetry asks people to have values, form opinions, care about some other part of experience besides making money and being successful on the job.

Like the lily That once was mistress of the field and flourished, I'll hang my head and perish.