A biography for Rita Morenohasn’t been written yet.
“Most people don't know that dancing auditions, you learn the steps right now.”
“I can't dwell on past mistakes.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Then there's the story of ill-fated love. It's universal.”
“I'm a person who perseveres. You know, you fall down, you get up.”
“I make a lot of soups and stews at home, and I always have fresh bread with it.”
“I was always typecast as a Latina.”
“I think lying is a bad idea. Sooner or later, someone's going to catch you.”
“I played a Siamese girl from Thailand. I played an Arabian girl. I did a lot of American Indians. I never, ever was able to do a part without assuming some kind of accent.”
“If I get a hangnail, I don't dare complain! Life is good. I wake up humming.”
“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.”
“I've always had this image of this strong, sprightly person who is undaunted by anything; on the contrary, I was one of the shyest, most unsure people you ever met in your life. But I have one very specific quality: I'm plucky. I really am. I would say that's a perfect description of my personality.”
“It's not easy having a partnership in this business.”
“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.”
“I was a Spanish dancer. I don't mean to put that down, because that was great, too, but nothing like the kind of dancing you had to do in 'West Side Story,' which was called jazz.”
“My idol when I was a kid was Elizabeth Taylor.”
“I sing Broadway stuff in the shower, mostly.”
“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.”
“I knew what my scripts would say before I opened them: 'Enter Conchita.' I played handmaidens, Indian squaws, and Mexican dancers.”