“When Fred Astaire danced, everything in this world was perfect.” — Stanley Donen Quote

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

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.'

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

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.

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 never danced growing up.

Things danced on the screen do not look the way they do on the stage. On the stage, dancing is three-dimensional, but a motion picture is two-dimensional.

Since I danced really intensely, singing was more just something that I enjoyed.

I always danced with my father in the living room. He did lifts with me, and he would twirl me around, and we'd laugh and giggle.

I danced modern dance my whole life, and it makes me feel young again.