My husband, my children and my home were the greatest concern to me.
If you worry about taking risks, don't do it.
Well, I swim quite a bit, and ride horseback. That's supposed to be bad for dancers, but I don't care - I like it. And then I collect dolls. I have them from lots of foreign countries.
The Roman goddess Diana, you know, is usually shown with a bow and arrow. Every first-year Latin student knows that. I still remember the first simple sentence I learned in Latin 'Diana sagittas por tas... Diana carries the arrows.' That helped get me interested in archery as a teenager and I'm still into it a lot.
You can't have bad eating habits without paying for them.
I like to work. It gets boring sitting around.
You never know what's around the corner.
Have you ever noticed how a cat stretches after a nap? We can learn from watching animals.
Most dancers have a young body. This is part discipline and part desire, because just sitting around makes one feel sluggish.
I'm not a luncheon personality so I skip it.
I was christened Tula Ellice Finklea.
M-G-M knew how to build stars. We used to do constant publicity stills. You were the Easter bunny one time and a Christmas tree the next. When I went to Japan, they knew who I was. Now you have a great actress and a year later, they ask, 'What happened to her?'
People who think they're making a fool of themselves on the dance floor usually do.
When you have control of muscles through balance, exercises not only streamline your figure, but you acquire a command and grace which contributes to your posture and to the way you wear your clothes.
It really isn't important how you get your exercise, but it does matter that you keep it up. If you let go, you'll find it very hard to get started again.
The censors were always there when I was on the set.
I believe in exercise for everybody: it makes you feel so much better, it keeps your muscles toned and your body supple.
Making a movie is like sprinting. Nightclub work is a long-distance event. You have to pace yourself and sustain it for a long period.
I've always worked very hard. I think dancers always do.
I was in a ballet company, and I auditioned for Bob Alton, a top choreographer at MGM. He sent me to see Arthur Freed, who offered me a seven-year contract.
I have never been extroverted.
I think that in all my dancing I play a role,' she told The Times that year. 'To me, that's what dancing is about. It's not just steps.
It's impossible to make dancing really effective on TV. The screen is too small, and the cameras can't move fast enough to get the right angles.
I was born in Amarillo. And my brother, who was a year older than I, had trouble saying the word 'Sister,' it came out 'Sid.' So I was called Sid.
The happy marriages never get any publicity. It's just the bad ones that you read about.
The first thing I did was 'Ziegfeld Follies,' a small bit en pointe with Fred Astaire.
Ballet is a closed world and very rigid; MGM was a fairyland. You'd walk down the lot, seeing all these fabulous movies being made with the greatest talent in the world sitting there. It was a dream to walk through that lot.
Claude Rains is my favorite actor. He's so utterly polished and competent, no matter what he does.
TV has made dancing less important. It used to be a real treat to go to the movies and see Fred Astaire dance. But now you see dancing every time you turn on the set. You see lines of girls on the variety shows - even girls dancing around a big box of cleaning powder for commercials.
My favorite occupation at home is sitting by the pool in swim suit, soaking in the sun, cooling off by an occasional sip of my water.
If I had to give up either acting or dancing, I'd choose to keep dancing.
Fred Astaire was special, and such a marvelous human being.
I was a dancer, not an actress.
I was this tiny, frail little girl, I needed to build up muscle, and I fell in love with dancing from the first lesson.
I had a mild case of polio as a child. Not enough to cripple me, but it was polio. I still have an atrophy on the right side of my back.
I eat a big breakfast and then go off to an hour and a half of strong ballet class.
The music changed. We had Irving Berlin and Gershwin and Lerner and Loewe and Cole Porter. Great music. Now we have 'Rent.'
Once you have your appetite well under control, start to acquire your dream figure with exercise.
Tap was against everything I had learned to do. I was pulled up as a ballet dancer, and I wasn't used to pounding the floor with bent knees.
When I'm working on a picture, I get up at 6 o'clock in the morning, report to the sound stage for rehearsals at 8, then appear before the camera from 9 to 6. I dread going to lunch, because during that hour my muscles get cold and I have to warm them up again. Standing still is the most miserable thing a dancer has to do.
Everything has come to me without my having to look for it. I signed with Metro because someone thought I had talent, and it was the same thing with the ballet.
I get really attached to dogs.
I've done about everything in show business except to play on Broadway. I always hoped that I would one day. It's the World Series of show business. If anybody tells you they're not intimidated, they're lying.
To make a man happy, treat him like a dog - plenty of affection and a loose leash.
You know, I don't think anyone ever knew anyone like Marilyn, really. I've never known another girl like Marilyn Monroe.
Whenever they do leg pictures, I'm it!
You never realize that good things are going to be over some day.
All I ever wanted to do was dance.
He was a wonderful gentleman, elegant, with great humility. All the wonderful things you can say about a person, you have to say about Fred Astaire.
I joined the Ballets Russes when I was 14, and my name was changed twice. I was known as Marie Istomina, then as Felia Siderova. When I went to Hollywood and made my first movie, 'Mission to Moscow,' in 1943, I became Lily Norwood.
If I have any strength as a dancer, I got it all from Nijinska. Her barre was tough, and there were very difficult combinations.
Well, I don't like hats, never wear 'em.
I never considered going into motion pictures.
Everybody can learn to dance. If they can walk, they can dance.
Oh, I'm insane about shrimp curry!
There was a technique to making a musical. It took a long time for the studios to learn it, and it was very complicated.
Sometimes it's a bit hard for a person to get the rhythm of music from the ear to the feet, but that's a matter of coordination.
I had no delusions about myself. I couldn't act - I had never acted. So how could I be a movie star?
There is no point working off pounds with exercise, if you are going to eat them back on again.