Quotes from Cyd Charisse

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.

There was a technique to making a musical. It took a long time for the studios to learn it, and it was very complicated.

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.

Whenever an actress marries a nonprofessional with the promise she can carry on her career, either the marriage ends or the career does. Only actors understand the demands of professional lives and make allowance for them.

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.

The happy marriages never get any publicity. It's just the bad ones that you read about.

Fred Astaire was special, and such a marvelous human being.

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 was in so many Esther Williams pictures with Ricardo Montalban and I always was his girl no matter what the story.

The first thing I did was 'Ziegfeld Follies,' a small bit en pointe with Fred Astaire.

I dance every day and my legs are in good shape.

You never realize that good things are going to be over some day.

People who think they're making a fool of themselves on the dance floor usually do.

You can't have bad eating habits without paying for them.

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.

What makes a star or a movie into a legend? I don't know. For instance, when Robert Taylor and I made 'Party Girl' in 1958, nobody was particularly excited about it. Now, it's considered by thousands to be a classic. There are 'Party Girl' cults.

Well, I don't like hats, never wear 'em.

Beverly Hills is just a small community.

I spent some time in Paris when I made 'Black Tights.' The working people were great but I didn't like the attitude of merchants who raised prices when they learned you were an American.

I was this tiny, frail little girl, I needed to build up muscle, and I fell in love with dancing from the first lesson.

During the day when I have a strenuous rehearsal, I may take a teaspoon of honey in a glass of juice for quick energy.

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.

If you worry about taking risks, don't do it.

For a while every commercial was a dancing one. Remember when girls were dancing around salt and coffee cans?