West Side Story 1961 quotes

Anita

I mind your nose and your head broken...Sure. They used Maria as an excuse to start World War III.

Bernardo

It is more than that.

Anita

More than what? She was only dancing.

Bernardo

With an American. He was really a Pollack.

Anita

Says the Spic.

Bernardo

You are not so cute.

Rosalia

That Tony is.

Consuelo

And he works.

As a delivery boy.

Anita

And what are you?

An assistant.

Bernardo

Si. And Chino makes half of what the Pollack makes.

Anita

Oh, here comes the whole commercial. 'Your mother's a Pole. Your father's a Swede. But you were born here. That's all that you need. You are an American.' When I think of how I thought it would be for us here, we came like children, believing, trusting.

Riff

Now we fought hard for this turf and we ain't just gonna give it up...The Emeralds claimed it. We shut 'em out. The Hawks, remember, they tried to take it away, and we knocked 'em down to the cellar.

Yeah, but these PRs are different. They multiply. They keep comin'. Like cockroaches. Close the windows. Shut the doors. They're eatin' our food. They're breathin' all the air. The end to free enterprise...

Riff

Hey, you heard what that Lieutenant Schrank said, eh? We gotta make nice with 'em Puerto Ricans or else. We gotta let 'em move in right under our noses and take it all away from us, or else.

No!

Riff

You're damned right NO. So what are we gonna do buddy-boys? I'll tell ya what we're gonna do. We're gonna speed fast. We're gonna move like lightnin'. And we're gonna clean them Sharks up once and for all so they ain't never gonna set foot on our turf again. And we're gonna do it in one, all-out fight...The Sharks want a piece of this world too. And they're real down boys. They might ask for blades, zip guns...I say this turf is small, but it's all we got, huh? Now I want to hold it like we always held it, with skin. But if they say blades, I say blades. If they say guns, I say guns. I say I want that just to be the number one - to sail, to hold the sky...OK cats, we rumble. Now, protocality calls for a war council between us and the Sharks, to set the whole thing up. So I would personally give the bad news to Bernardo.

Maria

How many bullets are left, Chino? Enough for you, and you? All of you. You all killed him! And my brother, and Riff. Not with bullets and guns - with hate. Well, I can kill too because now I have hate! How many can I kill, Chino? How many and still have one bullet left for me?

Tony

Every single night for the last month, I wake up. And I'm reachin' out.

Riff

For what?

Tony

I don't know.

Riff

A dame?

Tony

It's right outside the door. Just around the corner. But it's comin'.

Riff

What is?

Tony

I don't know. It's like the kick I used to get from bein' a Jet, you know?

Riff

Oh, well now you're talkin'. Oh man, without a gang, you're an orphan. With a gang, you walk in twos, threes, fours. And when your crew is the best, when you're a Jet, you're out in the sun, buddy-boy. You're home free home.

Tony

Riff, I've had it.

Riff

Tony, Tony, look at me, will ya? Come on, look at me...Now, I never asked the time of day from a clock, did I? I never asked nothin' from nobody. But I'm askin' you: 'Come to the dance tonight.'

Tony

I promised Doc I'd clean up the store tonight.

Riff

Then do it after the dance. Tony, I already told the guys you'd be there. If you don't show up, I'll be marked lousy.

Tony

What time'd ya tell 'em?

Riff

Ten. For me Tony, for Riff!

Tony

Ten it is.

Riff

Womb to tomb!

Tony

Birth to Earth. And I'll live to regret this.

Riff

Who knows? Maybe what you're waitin' for will be twitchin' at the dance tonight?

Anita

Bernardo was right. If one of you was lying in the street bleeding, I'd walk by and spit on you.

Action

Go on and go. Don't tell Chino that Tony's hidin' in the cellar.

Anita

Don't you touch me! I got a message for your American buddy. You tell that murderer that Maria's never going to meet him. You tell him that Chino found out about them and shot her. She's dead.

Doc

When do you kids stop? You make this world lousy.

Action

We didn't make it, Doc.

Doc

Get out of here.

Anita

A boy like that who'd kill your brother;
Forget that boy and find another.
One of your own kind, stick to your own kind.
A boy like that will give you sorrow;
You'll meet another boy tomorrow.

Bernardo

Get your hands off, American...Stay away from my sister.

Tony

Sister?

Bernardo

Couldn't you see he's one of them?

Maria

No. I saw only him.

Bernardo

There's only one thing they want from a Puerto Rican girl.

Tony

That's a lie!

Riff

Later, Tony.

Get away.

Tony

Stay out of this, Chino. [To Maria] Don't listen.

Bernardo

She will listen to her brother before she listens to you.

Doc

Fightin' over a little piece of street is so important?

Bernardo

Now I will not say these things to spoil your evening or to hear myself talk. I am here longer than you, Maria...Someday, when you're an old married woman with five children, then you can tell me what to do. Right now, it's the other way around. Now go to bed.

Anita

He's the old married woman. [To Bernardo] You know, she has a mother. Also a father.

Bernardo

They do not know this country any better than she does.

Anita

And you do not know it at all. Girls here are free to have fun. She is in America now.

Bernardo

Puerto Rico is in America now.

Anita

Sometimes I don't know which is thicker. Your skull or your accent.

'[singing] Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset.
We never had the love that every child oughta get.
We ain't no delinquents, we're misunderstood;
Deep down inside us there is good.

Tony

I'm thinkin' I'm someone else.

Maria

I know you are not.

Tony

Have we met before?

Maria

I know we have not.

Tony

I felt - I knew something never before was gonna happen, had to happen. But this is so much more.

Maria

My hands are cold. Yours too. [She touches his cheek] So warm.

Tony

So beautiful.

Maria

Beautiful.

Tony

So much to believe. You're not makin' a joke.

Maria

I have not yet learned how to joke that way. I think now I never will.

Snowboy

When you're a Jet, you're a top cat in town
You're a gold medal kid with the heavyweight crown!

Riff

Now I know Tony like I know me and I guarantee you can count him in.

Action

In, out, let's get crackin'.

Where you gonna find Bernardo?

Baby John

It ain't safe to go in P.R. territory.

Riff

He'll be at the dance tonight at the gym.

A-rab

Yeah, but the gym's neutral territory.

Riff

A-rab. I'm gonna make nice with him! I'm only gonna challenge him.

Ice

Great, Daddy-o!

Riff

So listen, everybody dress up sweet and sharp. Meet Tony and me at the dance at ten. And walk tall!

A-rab

We always walk tall!

Baby John

We're Jets!

The greatest!

Industry boom in America.

Twelve in a room in America.

Anita

Lots of new housing with more space.

Bernardo

Lots of doors slamming in our face.

Anita

I'll get the terrace apartment.

Bernardo

Better get rid of your accent.

Anita

Life can be bright in America.

If you can fight in America.

Life is all right in America.

If you're all white in America.

Here you are free and you have pride.

Long as you stay on your own side.

Free to be anything you choose.

Free to wait tables and shine shoes.

Ice

When you're a Jet, you're the swingin'est thing
Little boy, you're a man, little man, you're a king.