Top 99 Fred Quotes

I hear that 5 o’clock whistle in my mind like Fred Flintstone and I have to stop. I’m also not much of a morning writer. I have a sweet spot from about 11am to 4pm. But I really work during that time.

I have a ton of respect for Fred Van Vleet.

I remember vividly seeing ‘Tarzan‘ and Fred Astaire, the Chaplin films, Fred Astaire musicals, MGM, because of my mother. She was just interested in everything and she took me to opera and ballet, and then ballet got me hooked.

Fred Segal was founded – by none other than Fred Segal – as a tiny jeans retailer in 1968. In the 1970s Segal, began selling space to employees, starting with his nephew Ron Herman.

After marching across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma as a young man, John Lewis went on to become a legendary leader for civil rights alongside other giants of the movement like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

I met fred rogers in 1998, when ‘Esquire’ assigned me a story about him for a special issue on American heroes. I last spoke with him on Christmas Day 2002, when I called him to talk about an argument I’d had with my cousin; he died two months later, on February 27, 2003.

I make up cassettes all the time – to take on the road with me – a song from this album, a song from that album. That’s the way I listen to music; it’s like one of those K Tel things: it’s from all over. I listen to Fred Astaire, I listen to African folk music, I listen to Talking Heads.

I love working with crews. Filming the ‘Fred’ movie, for example, was a blast. You get to be around so many creative, talented people all day, so it’s a blast.

I studied dancing for 13 years. And loved to dance. Always wanted to dance with Fred Astaire.

In America, at the beginning of talkies, they pulled Fred Astaire from the theaters and put him on the screen and had all of these great composers write songs for him. They call it the Great American Songbook; I call it the Fred Astaire Songbook because they were written for him.

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 an only child for 15 years and then this lovely present, Fred, came along. It was great – it meant I had my teenage years with a little one around.

I remember as a young man seeing these bigger-than-life, strong images of black manhood in the form of Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, Jim Kelly, Billy Dee Williams. All these guys were these alpha males who were smart, attractive. I said, ‘Wow, I want to be like that.’

Fred Rogers was a children‘s-TV host, but he was not Captain Kangaroo or Officer Joe Bolton. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister who was so appalled by what he saw on 1950s television–adults trying to entertain children by throwing pies in each other’s faces – that he joined the medium as a reformer.

Over the years, myths were built up about my relationship with Fred Astaire. The general public thought he was a Svengali, who snapped his fingers for his little Trilby to obey; in their eyes, my career was his creation.

It used to be my ambition to emulate Fred Astaire on the stage and in motion picture musicals.

I loved ‘Cabaret.’ I loved what it had to say and the whole style and brilliance of the book. It was my first time performing Fred Ebb and John Kander’s work. They took risks. Even when their shows are fun and funny, they are about very serious issues.

I’ve worked with Fred Upton, and I think we’ve got a lot of common agreement on energy production.

I grew up loving movie musicals and Idolizing Fred Astalre. I never worked with Fred but I met him once at a pool hall in Van Nuys.

I was a mod when I was a kid. I’d be in Italian pencil-leg trousers with those bowling shoes you wear outside and a Fred Perry polo shirt with a V-neck sweater. It was like an Essex uniform – a very specific look.

I was asked to act when I couldn’t act. I was asked to sing ‘Funny Face’ when I couldn’t sing, and dance with Fred Astaire when I couldn’t dance – and do all kinds of things I wasn’t prepared for. Then I tried like mad to cope with it.

I’m definitely not as crazy as Fred!

The entire island knows our father, Fred Hemmings, Jr. – kids, adults, surfers, the governor, grocery clerks, gang members who call our house at night and threaten to kill us as soon as they get out of jail. Fred was a world-champion surfer and is now a well-known, controversial politician.

I live in a wonderful world of make-believe. A world of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. A world of Winnie the Pooh and Edward Bear. Things like that. Wonderful things. Funny things.

I think I was so grateful, in the years after Sleater-Kinney broke up or went on hiatus or whatever you want to call it, to find ‘Portlandia’ and co-create ‘Portlandia’ with Fred Armisen, which allows for levity, allows for the same kind of kinetic energy, but channeled through absurdity and surrealism.

I started dancing when I saw Fred Astaire in ‘Flying Down to Rio,’ at approximately nine years old. Fred Astaire influenced me, more than anything, to be in ‘show business.’

I would love to do a Fred Astaire/Gene Kelly type movie musical – a fun, song and dance, romantic comedy. Or, even just play the lead in one of those broad comedies – that would just be fantastic.

I would love to see a real story about Fred Hampton.

Fred Bumaye shows great promise as a young filmmaker with a passion for story and the cinematic language.

I love the old Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly movies; they’re so beautiful to look at. It’s such a shame we don’t make them anymore. Although, I don’t know how you could make tap dancing current and topical.

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 was sent there by the Free Congress Committee, headed by Paul Weyrich. Fred Smith and I were sent down as observers, with reporters‘ credentials, so we could witness the events.

What Fred Lebow went through was an inspiration for me. You have to set goals for yourself.

The only thing that frightens me a little is when I’m called Kevin rather than Fred, but that’s how people have known me for so many years. So, I can’t really blame them.

When Fred Astaire danced, everything in this world was perfect.

Actually, what will be shown from here to eternity will be Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr cavorting on the beach. ‘From Here to Eternity’ must have seemed like a chore to its director, Fred Zinnemann.

Ultimately, I’d say a lot of my vocal influences are jazz-based, people like Ella Fitzgerald, or Fred Astaire.

Once upon a time, a man named Fred Rogers decided that he wanted to live in heaven.

In Los Angeles, I’m always in Fred Segal. It’s become a ritual. I have lunch and then buy lots of things I don’t need. Usually tons of clothes for the kids that they grow out of in 10 seconds.

I try not to repeat myself too often, but it’s a gamble. ‘Fred Claus’ had three Oscar winners in it. No business – it was a bad movie.

I was very much aiming to go into movies eventually, like a lot of ‘SNL‘ people. But, soon after I arrived, all these really good actors started, like Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg, and I thought, ‘If I were casting a movie, I would put all of them in it over me.’

I grew up with the movies of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire and Judy Garland – these are the kinds of shows and the kinds of numbers in shows that I dreamed of being in and doing when I was a kid.

I can sing as well as Fred Astaire can act.

I don’t say that there is a lot of difference between Fred from Shakhtar and Manchester, we are adapting. Here at United, I score a little more, I improved a lot. I think that is the main difference.

I’ve worked with people from Fred Zinnemann, John Huston, through to Richard Fleischer, all of those boys from Hollywood and so on, and Sam Peckinpah and then the Mike Radfords.

No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

I want to have a very definite style that people recognise as being ‘Fred Fox.’

I asked Fred Astaire once when he was about my age if he still danced, and he said ‘Yes, but it hurts now.’ That’s exactly it. I can still dance, too, but it hurts now!

When I was a kid, I loved Nicholas brothers films. It was like skateboarding. Even Gene Kelly: I always preferred him to Fred Astaire, just because he was more athletic, like skateboarding.

I acted three times with Fred MacMurray, three times with Martin and Lewis, four times with Rock Hudson. Three times with Glenn Ford.

I’m a big Fred Armisen fan.

While I was making my solo films, RKO was busily trying to get me and Fred Astaire back together. The studio wanted to capitalize on the success of ‘Flying Down to Rio’ and realized that the pairing of Rogers and Astaire had moneymaking potential.

I loved Fred Astaire’s way of dancing. He led you into the dance.

Fred Willard still makes me laugh.

I lived for 15 years in Los Angeles, and I still can’t believe that the handsomest man in the world, Cary Grant, and the greatest performer in the world, Fred Astaire, and Johnny Carson, one after another – they were all in my home at different times. I celebrated my 50th birthday with them. Unforgettable.

I’d love to work with the people who really got the film industry going again through the ’70s: Peter Weir, Bruce Beresford, Gillian Armstrong, Fred Schepisi.

I have always been Fred Durst and I’ve always been me.

Once upon a time, a long time ago, a man took off his jacket and put on a sweater. Then he took off his shoes and put on a pair of sneakers. His name was Fred Rogers.

I always feel the most validated and confident being around people that I find funny – having Fred Armisen laugh at a scene or Bill Hader or Seth Meyers give me a compliment.

Look at the greatest dressers in history – Philadelphia socialite and diplomat Angier Biddle Duke, Sir Anthony Eden, Fred Astaire, the Duke of Windsor, John F. Kennedy, and Gary Cooper – they all sport the well placed pocket adornment.

Fred Sanger was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century.

You can compare Fred and Barney Rubble with Gleason and Carney.

Fred Astaire was a more formal, trained dancer who loved waltzing and only danced with the girls.

My dad got into this group, Commission, with Fred Hammond, and that was my biggest gospel memory. I would hear that all the time, and listening to their voices helped me develop my voice because I would try to emulate them as a kid. It taught me tone, and it gave me a balance.

I’ve always been inspired by the great actors and actresses of the ’30s and ’40s like Fred Astaire, Ann Miller and Gene Kelly.

I went over to say hi to Rob and he introduced me to Wayne and Fred. I had made a radical purchase of some brown Beatle boots. Wayne was like ‘Where did you get those boots! Who is this guy?

I have talent crushes on Fred Armisen and Kyle Mooney.

I’m a huge fan of Alice Hoffman, Fred Chappell and Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

I’m really into Noel Gallagher’s lad culture vibe. I used to wear Fred Perry polo shirts a lot. In fact, I went to an Oasis concert, which I believe was the band‘s penultimate gig before they disbanded, and I would say about 80 per cent of the audience were wearing the same polo.

As a dancer, obviously, we are all inspired by Michael Jackson, and I always looked up to Gene Kelly. He was a bigger version of Fred Astaire, and he was amazing as well.

A Yale University management professor in response to student Fred Smith’s paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service: The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a ‘C’, the idea must be feasible.

Many old music hall fans were present at the funeral today of Fred ‘Chuckles’ Jenkins, Britain‘s oldest and unfunniest comedian. In tribute, the vicar read out one of Fred’s jokes, and the congregation had two minutes silence.

I think the worst thing you could ever do is label comedy. I’m a fan of the broadness of Lucille Ball, the subtlety of Peter Sellers and the oddballness of Fred Armisen and the wittiness of Marty Short. I’m a fan of all of it, and I want to do all of it.

Whenever you play against Fred – we certainly did it – you let him get it because he has to take three or four touches. He doesn’t know how to do one or two touches. Anyone that watches his game, he gets it facing the wrong way, turns, turns, chops, chops and he’ll give you the ball three or four times a game.

I think if I was like Fred Astaire out there or like break dance fighting and doing crazy splits and stuff like that I think people would be like, ‘ehhhh, I’m just going to watch him,’ but the fact that they’re like, ‘I can do that,’ it’s fun and I think they lose themselves.

I was born Pauline Matthews and grew up in Bradford as one of three children – I had an older brother, David, and an older sister, Betty. My father Fred worked in the mills as a textile weaving supervisor, and my mother, Mary, was a housewife.

Fred Moten is a poet I really love because he changes who is telling the poem all the time.

Fred Astaire was retired when he worked in ‘The Pleasure of His Company.’ They were lucky to get him to play the father part.

Certainly, I’ve loved musicals for a while, so I did some short films in college that had musical numbers and things like that, so I’ve kind of been obsessed with Fred and Ginger and Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen and Jaques Demy forever.

Freddie Mercury and I both loved to have a laugh on tour. If there were shenanigans and good times, Fred and I would be there.

Our children await Christmas presents like politicians getting in election returns: there’s the Uncle Fred precinct and the Aunt Ruth district still to come in.

In Buffalo, you can’t imagine how much people revere Fred Jackson because of his high character, his community involvement, coming from a Division III school.

NBC President Fred Silverman told me he would change my life, and proceeded to offer me a five to seven-year contract to replace Jane Pauley as co-host of ‘The Today Show.’

When I am cast in a movie where I feel that the woman‘s part is more interesting, I usually start thinking about Spencer Tracy and Fred Astaire. They seem to be the most clear actors when working with women.

I was a big Fred Flintstone fan.

What I got, unconsciously, from admiring Fred Astaire was that he didn’t want what he was doing to look difficult. What was difficult, in my opinion, was making it look so genuine, so effortless. I equally have tried to remain unseen on the screen.

Eventually I returned to the W to play in Dallas, because of my coach Fred Williams. But once Fred got fired, I knew that my support there was gone. And that the only way I could stay in the league would be if I were living near my family on the West Coast.

It was an old cricket coach who started calling me Fred – as in Flintstone. There are far worse things to be called in the dressing room.

You sail into the harbor, and Staten Island is on your left, and then you see the Statue of Liberty. This is what everyone in the world has dreams of when they think about New York. And I thought, ‘My God, I’m in Heaven. I’ll be dancing down Fifth Avenue like Fred Astaire with Ginger Rogers.’

The thing is that my idols have always been the types of guys who could do anything: Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Sinatra, Dean Martin; and when you look up to people like that, you don’t accept that you need to be compartmentalised.

I kind of think that if you show conspiracy theorists a photo of the dead Bin Laden they will come up with an explanation for why it’s really a Photoshopped picture of Bin Laden asleep. Or his dead cousin Fred. Donald Trump apparently believes that Bin Laden is dead, so that ought to be enough for the Middle East.

I loved old black and white movies, especially the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals. I loved everything about them – the songs, the music, the romance and the spectacle. They were real class and I knew that I wanted to be in that world.

Sadly, I do my homework. I’ve a soft spot for the boring minutiae. I read the Charter of the United Nations before meeting with Kofi Annan. I read the Meltzer report, and then I’ll read C. Fred Bergsten’s defense of institutions like the World Bank and the I.M.F. It’s embarrassing to admit.

I spent an entire evening seated between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, being charmed from either side. It was pure Hollywood magic.

His name was Fred Rogers. He came home to Latrobe, Pennsylvania, once upon a time, and his parents, because they were wealthy, had bought something new for the corner room of their big redbrick house. It was a television.

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

I decided I wanted to go to Cambridge, and then I got introduced to Fred Sanger. I was very conscientious, and I asked him when I first got there if I should start reading up on things. But he said, ‘No, I think you can just start these experiments,’ so I plunged right in.

The Fred Astaire movies made a huge impression on me.

Fred Thompson was a law partner of mine.