Quotes from Rita Moreno

It's not easy having a partnership in this business.

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 can't dwell on past mistakes.

You talk about meant to be - oh my goodness, I have never done anything else in my life except be a performer.

I'm one of those performers who has done just about everything except juggle, and I'm working on that.

My best work happened on the stage.

I sing Broadway stuff in the shower, mostly.

I wore so much rubber when I was at MGM, I bumped into the wall once, and I ricocheted.

I get embarrassed when I go to an actor or actress's home and it's filled with pictures of them.

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.

I grew up thinking I had very little value. It's not something I felt I could share with my mom so it was all inside me.

People tell me I look good these days. I look good because I feel good. I know people who are older than I am who are twenty-five... It's all about attitude. To me, age is just a number.

This is my idea of heaven, coming home and watching the news.

The reason there weren't any, I am surmising, is that a lot of Latin kids, Latino kids, in those days didn't have the money to take those kind of classes.

I'm not afraid of color. I like color.

Elvis was really sweet and kind of bashful, but he didn't have a whole lot to say.

I am a very positive and optimistic person.

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.

People say that when you get to a certain age that you start to mellow. I have no idea what these people are talking about.

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 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 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.

Let's face it. How often do you see an Asian face in films and television? They are practically invisible. Now and then, you will get one, and, interestingly, he gets the role of a scientist. Isn't that interesting?

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.