Fred Astaire Quotes

Chance is the fool's name for Fate

I don't want to be the oldest performer in captivity ... I don't want to look like a little old man dancing out there.

Why didn't you tell me i was in love with you?

The higher up you go, the more mistakes you are allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it's considered to be your style.

For ballroom dancing, remember that your partners have their own distinctive styles also. Cultivate flexibility. Be able to adapt your style to that of your partner. In doing so, you are not surrendering your individuality, but blending it with that of your partner.

If the dance is right, there shouldn't be a single superfluous movement.

Oh, there's no such thing as my favorite performance. I can't sit here today and look back, and say: "Top Hat was better than Easter Parade or any of the others". I just don't look back, period. When I finish with a project, I say: "All right, that's that. What's next?"

I had some ballet training but didn't like it. It was like a game to me.

I don't like top hats, white ties, and tails.

I just put my feet in the air and move them around.

Dancing is a sweat job.

In dealing with a girl or a horse, one lets nature take its course

I just told my agent to forget all other projects for me. I was waiting for Audrey Hepburn. She asked for me, and I was ready. This could be the last and only opportunity I'd have to work with the great and lovely Audrey Hepburn and I was not missing it. Period.

Disco is just jitterbug.

The unpadded shoulders, the three-buttoned long and boxy coat, the too-short, thin pants, and the thin ties with striped buttoned shirts in dark colors-well, I suppose this may go very well with some personalities but it's not for me. To me, all such look like TV producers. Maybe they want to.

If it doesn't look easy it is that we have not tried hard enough yet.

When you have a Dancing partner, there's always gonna be a moment where the girl's gonna cry, Ginger didn't do that. But, most every other girl I've worked with have cried because they said "aah, I can't do it" and I have to go "Yes, you can, Shut up!" and they do do it.

I just put my feet in the ground and move them around.

Some people seem to think that good dancers are born, but all the good dancers I have known are taught or trained..

It's nice that all the composers have said that nobody interprets a lyric like Fred Astaire. But when it comes to selling records I was never worth anything particularly except as a collector's item.

I don't make love by kissing, I make love by dancing.

I have no desire to prove anything by dancing ... I just dance.

But I do nothing that I don't like, such as "inventing" up to the arty or "down" to the corny. I happen to relish a certain type of corn. What I think is the really dangerous approach is the "let's be artistic" attitude. I know that artistry just happens.