Certain roles for older women are aimed at certain older actresses - I'm not one of those. I've been offered any number of Puerto Rican grandmas that I've turned down.

Lupe Velez was way before me; Dolores Del Rio was way before me, so I had no one. So the only one I could think of that I identified with was this gorgeous creature named Elizabeth Taylor, so she became my role model.

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.

Any character who had dark skin, I got all those parts. I could play a Polynesian, East Indian princess, whatever.

Oh, I think Scarlett Johansson is a terrific actress. I think she's just marvelous.

I'm one of those performers who has done just about everything except juggle, and I'm working on that.

I had no role models from my own community - there was no such thing. Earlier on, there were people like Dolores Del Rio, but I was too young for that - that was before me. There was really nobody out there.

Actors very often are people who think it's always about 'me,' and I can see why! No one else is going to support you or say, 'Gosh, I'm sorry about that,' or, 'Here, let me give you a job.' It doesn't happen that way. You can see why performers get very self-absorbed.

I just love details; I love trying to make the reader smell what I was smelling at the time and see what I was seeing. Textures, too - all that kind of stuff is probably my strong suit as far as my writing goes, I would say.

Actually, my true name is Rosa Dolores Alverio. And then I became Rosita Moreno when a stepfather stepped in. And when I got to MGM studios, which was my first film contract, they just thought that Rosita wasn't a good name, and they changed it to Rita. And yes, it was their idea.

'Revolutionary Road' with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet absolutely destroys me. They were both so wonderful in it.

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.

You talk about meant to be - oh my goodness, I have never done anything else in my life except be a performer.

I'm a person who perseveres. You know, you fall down, you get up.

I'm an afternoon tea maven. I can tell you who has the best tea in every country.

I'm a raucous Puerto Rican!

I think it's important to be reminded that that's what this country is comprised of - people from other countries.

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

The part of my personality that most irritated my husband, some of our big, big disagreements were when I got what he called 'showbiz.' He meant flamboyant or raucous.

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

'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.'

If you're going to make black movies only about black people, that's as bad as white movies only about white people.

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

When I was a little girl, there was no Variety Latino. When I was a little girl, there was no nothing. There were very few roles for people like myself.