Quotes from Chita Rivera

I was from Washington, D.C., and then I came to New York and got the scholarship for the ballet.

Beauty is not everything!

You get the best out of people by allowing them to do their best work.

I've never been bored in live theater.

I'm not comfortable with just me, me, me. That's boring.

Mother loved dance so much that she thought (ballerina) Margot Fonteyn should be the president.

It's important that the kids stay busy. It's important that they have something to focus on, and something that they feel good about.

You always want to please your choreographer, director. Dancers are just that way.

I've always had a crazy sense of humor. So the ballet probably wouldn't have been enough for me. I had to clown around a little bit more.

Absolutely, I'll always be a dancer.

'Chicago' is all about precision.

Why not travel, why not see the rest of the world, why not experience life? It's beautiful! Phenomenal!

You can feel whether an audience is tightened up and pulled back. Of course the opposite is an audience like we've been having in LA, which is fabulous.

San Francisco has just blown us all away. I also understand Angels in America didn't do well there.

After about 15 minutes, you feel that you're winning them over.

It's communication - that's what theatre is all about.

Theatre is immediate gratification.

You take a plug and put it in a socket, and that's what the theatre is-it lights up right away. You speak, and they respond immediately.

A lot of Americans like happy endings, but life does not necessarily have a happy ending.

I just broke up all the furniture in the house. My mother had to get rid of me. So she put me in dance class.

I think Lin-Manuel deserves absolutely everything that he's getting. He is an extremely gifted guy, a very fine human being, and loves the theater. Loves it.

I can tell you where my Tonys are. They're in a beautiful place in my living room, in a glass cabinet.

Many of the shows I danced in don't exist on film, but they do exist in the memories of those who were in the theater for that single moment in time. And nothing can replace that.

My hairdresser and I found ourselves shopping at Bloomingdale's with nothing to do for days.