Rita Moreno, born Rosa Dolores Alverío in 1931, has been a famous personality in entertainment for over 70 years, garnering an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony, making her the first Latina EGOT winner.
Born in Puerto Rico, she moved to New York at five, starting her film career at 11 and Broadway at 13.
Despite being typecast in early roles, Moreno’s breakthrough came with West Side Story in 1961, earning her an Academy Award.
She continued to thrive in the industry, winning various awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004 and remains active, recently working on Netflix’s One Day at a Time and Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story remake.
Best Rita Moreno Quotes
I figure if I keep my spirit in shape, the bones will take care of themselves. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m not afraid of color. I like color. ~ Rita Moreno.
I started dancing almost before I could walk. ~ Rita Moreno.
It is through art that we will prevail and we will endure. It lives on after us and defines us as people. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m a very emotional person anyway. I’m not an 85-year-old Puerto Rican female for nothing. ~ Rita Moreno.
I am able to get up and dust myself off and keep moving forward. I’m very stubborn. ~ Rita Moreno.
Arrogance – I have very little tolerance for that. ~ Rita Moreno.
Most people don’t know that dancing auditions, you learn the steps right now. ~ Rita Moreno.
If you’re going to make black movies only about black people, that’s as bad as white movies only about white people. ~ Rita Moreno.
I am not exactly Mrs. Good Housekeeping, although I love to cook, bake, even iron, but only because it’s not mandatory. ~ Rita Moreno.
It’s kind of heartbreaking when I talk about it now, I still get very moved by the lack of opportunities that were available to myself and to the very few others who were Hispanic young actresses. ~ Rita Moreno.
Famous Rita Moreno Quotes
Then there’s the story of ill-fated love. It’s universal. ~ Rita Moreno.
You can’t, or you shouldn’t, be nominated for an Oscar unless you’ve turned in a performance that’s special. ~ Rita Moreno.
If you can find a way your character moves, you know more about your character than you’d ever dream. ~ Rita Moreno.
I was brought up on animal grease. ~ Rita Moreno.
Beyonce moves a lot. She’s astonishing, dances and sings at the same time. She is buff. ~ Rita Moreno.
I love performing for kids, but you can’t play down to them, of course. Then it would be ‘Captain Kangaroo.’ ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m so damn lucky to still be here at 85. If I get a hangnail, I don’t dare complain! Life is good. I wake up humming. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m proud of me. ~ Rita Moreno.
I should be a representative for AARP! ~ Rita Moreno.
My voice has many dynamics in it. Like my little body. ~ Rita Moreno.
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. ~ Rita Moreno.
Oh, I think Scarlett Johansson is a terrific actress. I think she’s just marvelous. ~ Rita Moreno.
All my life, I faced sexism and racism and then, when I hit 40, ageism. ~ Rita Moreno.
Retirement is just not in my DNA. ~ Rita Moreno.
Popular Rita Moreno Quotes
They made me use an accent, which I wasn’t thrilled about because a lot of us, obviously, don’t have them. ~ Rita Moreno.
I have stamina, and I have energy. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m an actress, and I am Latina. ~ Rita Moreno.
Doing ‘Life Without Makeup’ onstage is what inspired me to do a book in the first place. ~ Rita Moreno.
I feel like I could go on forever. ~ Rita Moreno.
I made a lot of mistakes. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m a raucous Puerto Rican! ~ Rita Moreno.
Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life. ~ Rita Moreno.
I don’t want to miss out on my grandchildren and my daughter, and doing Broadway would do just that. ~ Rita Moreno.
I am a woman of the moment. ~ Rita Moreno.
I can’t dwell on past mistakes. ~ Rita Moreno.
Being the house ethnic was destroying my life and my sense of myself, because I had been consigned to play every dusky maiden you have ever seen in your life in movies. ~ Rita Moreno.
Top Rita Moreno Quotes
Mellowing has never done much for me. You need to keep moving. ~ Rita Moreno.
The one thing I really learned, and learned well, in group therapy was that you don’t die if someone doesn’t like you. ~ Rita Moreno.
Elvis was really sweet and kind of bashful, but he didn’t have a whole lot to say. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m a person who perseveres. You know, you fall down, you get up. ~ Rita Moreno.
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. ~ Rita Moreno.
I live in the moment. The moment is the most important thing. That’s my entire philosophy: Make the best of the good moments. ~ Rita Moreno.
Elvis was a sweet darling, shy fellow, but he was really boring. ~ Rita Moreno.
My grandkids are everything to me. For me, family is all! ~ Rita Moreno.
I get embarrassed when I go to an actor or actress’s home and it’s filled with pictures of them. ~ Rita Moreno.
People say that when you get to a certain age that you start to mellow. I have no idea what these people are talking about. ~ Rita Moreno.
Powerful Rita Moreno Quotes
I was never offered enough, and that’s the truth. ~ Rita Moreno.
I grew up as a child who felt she was very inferior to everyone else. ~ Rita Moreno.
Maybe it’s my age, but I know I look good, so I’m not going to look like another person suddenly because I don’t have makeup on – same hair, same person. ~ Rita Moreno.
This is my idea of heaven, coming home and watching the news. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m an afternoon tea maven. I can tell you who has the best tea in every country. ~ Rita Moreno.
When you engage your brain, it just keeps getting fatter and richer and wonderful. ~ Rita Moreno.
No one’s going to tell me how to make my own choices. For too many years, everybody told me what to say and what to do and how to be. ~ Rita Moreno.
I write with my left hand even though I’m right-handed, I walk backwards in a very safe place – anything that engages your brain. ~ Rita Moreno.
If I get a hangnail, I don’t dare complain! Life is good. I wake up humming. ~ Rita Moreno.
I think lying is a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone’s going to catch you. ~ Rita Moreno.
I am the happiest Hispanic I’ve ever met. Truly. ~ Rita Moreno.
I sing Broadway stuff in the shower, mostly. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m trying as hard as I can to keep pushing the boundaries of what a woman is capable of doing. And it turns out there’s a lot we can do. There’s a lot we can speak about. ~ Rita Moreno.
Strong Rita Moreno Quotes
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. ~ Rita Moreno.
I never had an easy time making friends in the past, for many reasons. I didn’t go into therapy for nothing. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m one of the happiest people I know. I truly am. And it’s genuine. ~ Rita Moreno.
I was always typecast as a Latina. ~ Rita Moreno.
Smell the roses. Smell the coffee. Whatever it is that makes you happy. ~ Rita Moreno.
I believe staying young at heart is all in one’s personal attitude… you can’t instill that in anyone. ~ Rita Moreno.
I was dancing for my grandpa from the time I was 4 or 5 years old in Puerto Rico. ~ Rita Moreno.
Profound Rita Moreno Quotes
You’ve got to make a decision when you write about your life, and I decided I was going to be honest, and some of those things will be embarrassing. ~ Rita Moreno.
I’m one of those performers who has done just about everything except juggle, and I’m working on that. ~ Rita Moreno.
Any character who had dark skin, I got all those parts. I could play a Polynesian, East Indian princess, whatever. ~ Rita Moreno.
It’s not easy having a partnership in this business. ~ Rita Moreno.
My best work happened on the stage. ~ Rita Moreno.
You can wish to have an Oscar someday or some other award, but Life Achievement? You don’t see yourself that way. ~ Rita Moreno.
When I was girl, you could still get certain jobs if you didn’t have a diploma. ~ Rita Moreno.
I think Jennifer Lopez is a phenom. And as far as I’m concerned, she’s really a very smart businesswoman. ~ Rita Moreno.
I – my experience was really no different from any other immigrant that came to this country. It was rough. ~ Rita Moreno.
So these were the 80 top quotes about Rita Moreno.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Temple Grandin quotes and Carl Rogers quotes.
