Quotes from Rita Moreno

I make a lot of soups and stews at home, and I always have fresh bread with it.

I was always typecast as a Latina.

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.

If you can find a way your character moves, you know more about your character than you'd ever dream.

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.

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.

I have stamina, and I have energy.

I've been neurotic in my life; I've had neurotic relationships with men. What else is new? But you really have to learn to be resilient - able to bounce back, pick yourself up, and just keep moving.

Then there's the story of ill-fated love. It's universal.

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.

Most people don't know that dancing auditions, you learn the steps right now.

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.

'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.'

I was never offered enough, and that's the truth.

I love being onstage, I love getting applause, and I love the love that comes across the footlights. It's so much a part of what I do and what I've done most of my life.

Doing 'Life Without Makeup' onstage is what inspired me to do a book in the first place.

I knew what my scripts would say before I opened them: 'Enter Conchita.' I played handmaidens, Indian squaws, and Mexican dancers.

I deliberately state my age because it keeps me honest. I think lying is a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone's going to catch you.

I was not treated like a serious young actress, and that was very hard. It sent me into psychotherapy, which is one of the smartest things I ever did. It taught me that I had to find value in myself.

A lot of young Latino actors have said to me, 'Why can't we get an Oscar? Why can't we be nominated?' And the terrible truth is that if you don't get the right parts, you're not going to be. Are you going to get an Oscar nomination for one of those Judd Apatow movies? Not likely, no matter what nationality you are.

You can't, or you shouldn't, be nominated for an Oscar unless you've turned in a performance that's special.

There is something about sex that always brings out the funny in me. I think it's because we make such fools of ourselves over it.

It is through art that we will prevail and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people.

I believe staying young at heart is all in one's personal attitude... you can't instill that in anyone.