Rita Moreno

I think Mike Nichols is brilliant, but I think Jerry Robbins was a genius.

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.

When you engage your brain, it just keeps getting fatter and richer and wonderful.

'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.'

There are some fabulous treasures of photos of me during the early days of my career; there are these pin-up photos that make me laugh: I look like the poor man's Maria Montez. But there are some I look at, and I didn't realize how sexy I looked back then.

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.

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

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.

If you're going to write about your life, you must write about your life.

The one thing I really learned, and learned well, in group therapy was that you don't die if someone doesn't like you.

Mellowing has never done much for me. You need to keep moving.

I have stamina, and I have energy.

Doing 'The Electric Company' was the most fun ever.

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

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.

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

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

I was dancing for my grandpa from the time I was 4 or 5 years old in Puerto Rico.

I am the happiest Hispanic I've ever met. Truly.

I grew up as a child who felt she was very inferior to everyone else.