I think Jennifer Lopez is a phenom. And as far as I'm concerned, she's really a very smart businesswoman.
— Rita Moreno
My idol when I was a kid was Elizabeth Taylor.
It's not easy having a partnership in this business.
I think it's important to be reminded that that's what this country is comprised of - people from other countries.
I was brought up on animal grease.
My mother's feeling about men in general were always a bit of a mystery to me. She had difficulties in Puerto Rico with the men in her life. Her brothers abused her. It's very easy to be judgmental, but more often than not, there are mitigating circumstances, and children are not usually aware of those.
Elvis was a sweet darling, shy fellow, but he was really boring.
I think Mike Nichols is brilliant, but I think Jerry Robbins was a genius.
I have played Polynesian. I have played an Arabian girl. I played an East Indian girl. And what was so confusing about that, which I mention in my book, is that I assumed I had to have an accent. Nobody said anything, so I made up what I call the universal ethnic accent, and they all sounded alike. It didn't matter who I was playing.
I auditioned for 'West Side Story' just like everybody else, and I nearly had a heart attack, because I hadn't danced in about - oh, I don't know, about 15 years.
I was never offered enough, and that's the truth.
Actors very often are people who think it's always about 'me,' and I can see why! No one else is going to support you or say, 'Gosh, I'm sorry about that,' or, 'Here, let me give you a job.' It doesn't happen that way. You can see why performers get very self-absorbed.
Arrogance - I have very little tolerance for that.
'Revolutionary Road' with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet absolutely destroys me. They were both so wonderful in it.
I am a very positive and optimistic person.
I never had an easy time making friends in the past, for many reasons. I didn't go into therapy for nothing.
Is there a grandmother that isn't spunky on television? Is there such a creature?
If you're in a business where Latinos only play Indian maidens and what I call 'Conchita Lolita' parts - the little fiery spitfires - you do what you have to do.
I'm a raucous Puerto Rican!
The part of my personality that most irritated my husband, some of our big, big disagreements were when I got what he called 'showbiz.' He meant flamboyant or raucous.
I make a lot of soups and stews at home, and I always have fresh bread with it.
If you're going to write about your life, you must write about your life.
I am a woman of the moment.
When you engage your brain, it just keeps getting fatter and richer and wonderful.
I just love details; I love trying to make the reader smell what I was smelling at the time and see what I was seeing. Textures, too - all that kind of stuff is probably my strong suit as far as my writing goes, I would say.
When I was nominated for the Oscar, I was absolutely positive that Judy Garland would win for 'Judgment at Nuremberg,' and then they call my name, and I was absolutely paralyzed. And I remember walking down to the stage and saying to myself, 'Don't run. It's not dignified.'
You've got to make a decision when you write about your life, and I decided I was going to be honest, and some of those things will be embarrassing.
My best work happened on the stage.
You can never fight for a part or can't beg them to do another audition. You can try, but that rarely works.
Doing 'The Electric Company' was the most fun ever.
'America' took at least five days of actual filming.
I am able to get up and dust myself off and keep moving forward. I'm very stubborn.
I grew up as a child who felt she was very inferior to everyone else.
You can't, or you shouldn't, be nominated for an Oscar unless you've turned in a performance that's special.
I had no role models from my own community - there was no such thing. Earlier on, there were people like Dolores Del Rio, but I was too young for that - that was before me. There was really nobody out there.
I made a lot of mistakes.
My husband and I were very different: I'm spontaneous and emotional; I'm loud - he was exactly the opposite. But you need to be flexible.
Women over 30 are usually somebody's mother in a 'Porky's' movie, being silly and being ridiculed. There's just not a whole lot for them to do. It's just coffee-pouring on a bigger scale.
Elvis was really sweet and kind of bashful, but he didn't have a whole lot to say.
The wonderful thing about cabaret is, you can do a lot of things you can't do in a concert. You can't do smoky ballads for 50 minutes in a concert. It's a different animal.
I watch 'Singin' in the Rain' at least once a year with my grandchildren, and they just adore it.
Doing 'Life Without Makeup' onstage is what inspired me to do a book in the first place.
Being the house ethnic was destroying my life and my sense of myself, because I had been consigned to play every dusky maiden you have ever seen in your life in movies.
I was always typecast as a Latina.
I feel like I could go on forever.
A friend of my mother's, Irene Lopez, was a Spanish dancer. She saw me bopping around the room and said to my mother, 'Rosita might have talent. Can I take her to my dance teacher?' There was no thought of a career at that time, but I knew I loved the attention, and that's so much a part of being a performer.
I sing Broadway stuff in the shower, mostly.
If you saw me in 'The King and I,' I had that angelic, virginal face.
I've always had this image of this strong, sprightly person who is undaunted by anything; on the contrary, I was one of the shyest, most unsure people you ever met in your life. But I have one very specific quality: I'm plucky. I really am. I would say that's a perfect description of my personality.
I'm one of the happiest people I know. I truly am. And it's genuine.
