Gene Kelly quotes

Gene Kelly was an American dancer, actor, and director, celebrated for his energetic and athletic dancing style in film musicals. His innovative choreography and charm made him a legendary figure in Hollywood. He influenced generations of performers and transformed the movie musical genre. Here are 16 of his quotes:

Fred Astaire represented the aristocracy, I represented the proletariat.

Gene Kelly

I still find it almost impossible to relax for more than one day at a time.

Gene Kelly

When Ginger Rogers danced with Astaire, it was the only time in the movies when you looked at the man, not the woman.

Gene Kelly

I wanted to do new things with dance, adapt it to the motion picture medium.

Gene Kelly

I think dancing is a man's game and if he does it well he does it better than a woman.

Gene Kelly

In the 1930s, when I started, Martha Graham was the only dancer doing anything modern, but she did it all to classical music. I couldn't see myself doing Swan Lake every night, and I wanted to develop a truly American style. The only dancer in the movies at that time with any success was Fred Astaire, but he did very small, elegant steps in a top hat, white tie, and tails.

Gene Kelly

It's all true. It's true I didn't want to be a dancer. What I really wanted to be was a shortstop for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then at 14 I discovered girls, and began to study dancing diligently. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship. Only later did I discover you dance joy. You dance love. You dance dreams. Of course, the Pittsburgh Pirates lost a hell of a shortstop.

Gene Kelly

I got started dancing because I knew it was one way to meet girls.

Gene Kelly

At 14 I discovered girls. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship. Only later did I discover that you dance joy. You dance love. You dance dreams.

Gene Kelly

My mother had gotten a job as a receptionist at a dancing school and had the idea that we should open our own dancing school; we did, and it prospered.

Gene Kelly

I'd studied dance in Chicago every summer and taught it all winter, and I was well-rounded. I wasn't worried about getting a job on Broadway. In fact, I got one the first week.

Gene Kelly

I arrived in Hollywood twenty pounds overweight and as strong as an ox.

Gene Kelly

At 14 I discovered girls. At that time dancing was the only way you could put your arm around the girl. Dancing was courtship.

Gene Kelly

There is a strange sort of reasoning in Hollywood that musicals are less worthy of Academy consideration than dramas. It's a form of snobbism, the same sort that perpetuates the idea that drama is more deserving of Awards than comedy.

Gene Kelly