Smell the roses. Smell the coffee. Whatever it is that makes you happy.
Rita Moreno
No one's going to tell me how to make my own choices. For too many years, everybody told me what to say and what to do and how to be.
My first American experience was in the harbor of New York City when I saw that amazing big, tall lady. I remember thinking, 'Oh my goodness, a lady runs this country.'
I'm trying as hard as I can to keep pushing the boundaries of what a woman is capable of doing. And it turns out there's a lot we can do. There's a lot we can speak about.
Arrogance - I have very little tolerance for that.
I live in the moment. The moment is the most important thing. That's my entire philosophy: Make the best of the good moments.
All my life, I faced sexism and racism and then, when I hit 40, ageism.
I can't dwell on past mistakes.
I'm a raucous Puerto Rican!
I wore so much rubber when I was at MGM, I bumped into the wall once, and I ricocheted.
When I was in my teens and into my early 20s, I had acne. I used to get those big purple jobs, but not a lot of them, thank goodness, because you really couldn't see them in the films that I did.
I was never offered enough, and that's the truth.
Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life.
I - my experience was really no different from any other immigrant that came to this country. It was rough.
I was determined that with perseverance and faith, at some point, someone would say, 'This girl has talent,' and would cast me in something meaningful.
When you engage your brain, it just keeps getting fatter and richer and wonderful.
I was born in Puerto Rico - I used to sit in the sun until I looked like a piece of bacon. It's a wonder now that I don't look like an old wallet. I'm a very fortunate person.
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.
I made a lot of mistakes.
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.
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.'
I am able to get up and dust myself off and keep moving forward. I'm very stubborn.
I never had an easy time making friends in the past, for many reasons. I didn't go into therapy for nothing.
I was brought up on animal grease.
I was the artsy one, and my husband took care of all our finances. It was the Latino way - the man is in charge of the money.
I'm so damn lucky to still be here at 85. If I get a hangnail, I don't dare complain! Life is good. I wake up humming.
I think Mike Nichols is brilliant, but I think Jerry Robbins was a genius.
They made me use an accent, which I wasn't thrilled about because a lot of us, obviously, don't have them.
When I was a little girl, there was no Variety Latino. When I was a little girl, there was no nothing. There were very few roles for people like myself.
I was dancing for my grandpa from the time I was 4 or 5 years old in Puerto Rico.
If you're going to make black movies only about black people, that's as bad as white movies only about white people.
'LIFE Magazine' decided to do a story about a young actress in Hollywood in 1954. And I made the cover. And I remember that the fellow who was doing the story on me said, 'Listen, kid, I just want you to know, if Eisenhower gets a cold, you're off the cover.'
Elvis was really sweet and kind of bashful, but he didn't have a whole lot to say.
You see a script, and you say, 'Oh, I can play the heck out of that,' talk to your agent, and he says they don't want to see you. That's heartbreaking.
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 think it's important to be reminded that that's what this country is comprised of - people from other countries.
I'm an afternoon tea maven. I can tell you who has the best tea in every country.
You talk about meant to be - oh my goodness, I have never done anything else in my life except be a performer.
I was a Spanish dancer. I don't mean to put that down, because that was great, too, but nothing like the kind of dancing you had to do in 'West Side Story,' which was called jazz.
I love Hallmark movies because they make movies that you don't see anymore... and at a time when there is so much evil in the world, it's kind of nice to be able to retreat to something like a Hallmark Movies and Mysteries.
'Revolutionary Road' with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet absolutely destroys me. They were both so wonderful in it.
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.
I write with my left hand even though I'm right-handed, I walk backwards in a very safe place - anything that engages your brain.
I'm one of the happiest people I know. I truly am. And it's genuine.
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.
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.
It's kind of heartbreaking when I talk about it now, I still get very moved by the lack of opportunities that were available to myself and to the very few others who were Hispanic young actresses.
I'm one of those performers who has done just about everything except juggle, and I'm working on that.
Oh, I think Scarlett Johansson is a terrific actress. I think she's just marvelous.
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.
