Rita Moreno Quotations

When was the last time you saw a story being driven forward by dances and songs?

When was the last time you saw a musical about people at war with each other?

I think it was absolutely a noble cause. Kids watched it for the entertainment, but they were learning at the same time. I think it's something brilliant that deserves to be out there again.

The reason was that there simply weren't enough Hispanic - forget Puerto Rican - Hispanic male and female dancers at the time who could do the kind of professional job that was needed for Jerome Robbins' choreography, which is, you might have noticed, extremely complex and very difficult.

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.

Apparently, I think it's Columbia Records has Betty Wand's name on all of the stuff that I did, too, and that's made me very, very unhappy.

They made me use an accent, which I wasn't thrilled about because a lot of us, obviously, don't have them.

It is very important that women of this country be made aware of the dangers of osteoporosis in the sense that it is a silent and invisible disease with no symptoms whatsoever

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

They've had to overcome a great deal - not as much as I did - but it's become OK to be Latino.

I love the people here. I love New York.

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.

Retirement is just not in my DNA.

I'm 81 and I'm in the prime of my life.

I'm one of the most joyous people I've ever met.

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

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

Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life.

My middle name really is perseverance. I've always believed that I had talent, even when I felt like a very inferior sort of person, which I spent a lot of time living my life feeling that I wasn't worthy. But even then I knew that I had something special, and maybe that's what it takes. Maybe people need to have that kind of particular core driving them. But I felt I had talent.

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.

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