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.

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.

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.

In the beginnings, God Mother separates the earth from the heavens.

The real challenge of compassion, nonviolence and mindfulness is to love in adverse situation.

Not really a party until someone brings the surprise zombies.

Counter the effects of culture (steering your design ideas) by going out and looking for new experiences.

Since the whole world is now concerned more about K-pop, I want to make more great songs which can be listed to as classics.

The only future is intentional Catholicism, evangelical Catholicism.

None of my clients are criminals, but to a much lighter degree that's what goes on. I hear the story, and I hear it with the level of detail that breeds empathy.

Confidence imparts a wonderful inspiration to the possessor.

Since every death diminishes us a little, we grieve - not so much for the death as for ourselves.