“I think Mike Nichols is brilliant, but I think Jerry Robbins was a genius.” — Rita Moreno

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.