Quotes

Bigger than life is not difficult for me. I am bigger than life.

It is very important that women of this country be made aware of the dangers of osteoporosis in the sense that it is a silent and invisible disease with no symptoms whatsoever.

[Her Oscar acceptance speech] I can't believe it! Good Lord! I'll leave you with that.

A lot of young Latino actors have said to me, "Why can't we get an Oscar? Why can't we be nominated?" And the terrible truth is that if you don't get the right parts, you're not going to be. Are you going to get an Oscar nomination for one of those Judd Apatow movies? Not likely, no matter what nationality you are. And I think that until we as Latino actors get to do roles that have really serious meaning, it's going to be impossible to get nominated.

Once we went to the apartment of some brothers. Obviously, their parents were not at home. One of them was a big flirt, and he had a little bit of peach fuzz over his upper lip, and he was making eyes at me. He said, "Whatever you do, don't put on perfume, because that really makes me crazy." Immediately, I went into his mother's bedroom and dabbed some behind my ears.

There was nobody that I could look up and say "That's somebody like me". Which is probably why I'm now known in my community as 'La Pionera', or the Pioneer. I really don't think of myself as a role model. But it turns out that I am to a lot of the Hispanic community. Not just in show business, but in life. But that's what happens when you're first, right?

[in 1975, on her disappointment realizing her 1962 Oscar win hadn't really boosted her career] I couldn't believe it. I had just turned 30, and thought I had finally broken through as an actress. I was sure the Oscar would change everything, but I soon found out that it made no difference.

[on Mike Nichols]: I think he had an icy kind of heart.