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

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

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.

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.

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.

Without needing told, without Jacob's lead, Akando dropped to his knees and lunged into the throne room of Christ.

I see religion as a storehouse of lots of really good ideas that a secular world should look at, raid, and learn from.

But one of the amazing things about documentary is that you can remake it every time you make one. There is no rule about how a documentary film has to be made.

Yes, I always remember my dad's, mom's and my grandma's perfumes.

Be thou a bright flame before me, Be thou a guiding star above me, Be thou a smooth path below me, Today, tonight and forever.

I love Don Williams records. And old Ralph Stanley and Bill Monroe.

There is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European war'... will become the first world war in the full sense of the word.

Just because you're perfectionist doesn't mean you're perfect.

[My son] Michael came along and he played a little bit of everything. He went to Georgia Tech on a golf scholarship.

I think it's really important to mix cardio with toning, so I love boxing and then add in Pilates or ballet to keep me long and lean and avoid bulking up.