Cyd Charisse

“I like warm weather but not this sticky, humid heat of New York.”

“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.”

“I was a dancer, not an actress.”

“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 suppose I'm considered a little old fashioned, but I still believe the most flattering skirt length is just skimming the middle of the knee.”

“The music changed. We had Irving Berlin and Gershwin and Lerner and Loewe and Cole Porter. Great music. Now we have 'Rent.'”

“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.”

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

“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?'”

“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 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.”

“My husband, my children and my home were the greatest concern to me.”

“When I am dancing I go into training. I eat a good strong breakfast. You have so much more energy if you start your day well fortified.”

“Archery is simply marvelous for firming up the arms, neck, back, the chest, and the abdominal muscles.”

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

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

“Who can copy Garbo?”

“There is no point working off pounds with exercise, if you are going to eat them back on again.”

“All I ever wanted to do was dance.”