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Home / Best Quotes / West Side Story (2021) Best Movie Quotes

West Side Story (2021) Best Movie Quotes

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Starring: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Mike Faist, Josh Andrés Rivera, Ana Isabelle, Corey Stoll, Brian d’Arcy James, Rita Moreno

OUR RATING: ★★★½

Story:

Movie adaption of the hit 1957 Broadway musical directed by Steven Spielberg. West Side Story (2021) follows teenagers Tony and Maria (Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler), who fall in love despite being affiliated with rival gangs, the Jets and Sharks, in 1950s New York City.

Read the review of the 1961 movie here.

Our Favorite Quotes:

'I'm always just about to fall off the edge of the world's tallest building. I stopped falling the second I saw you.' - Tony (West Side Story) Click To Tweet

 

Best Quotes


 

Lieutenant Schrank: I realize if any of you helps me out, you might spoil your chance to murder each other over control of this earthly paradise.
Balkan: The Jets control it and you know it.
Lieutenant Schrank: Yeah, but, golly gee, Balkan, not according to the New York City Committee for Slum Clearance, which has decided to pull this whole hellmouth down to the bedrock, and you’re in the way.


 

Lieutenant Schrank: Work with me, fellas. Or they’re going to drive you off your turf.
Riff: You said it was the Slum Clearance Committee that was driving us off, now it’s the PRs. You got to get your story straight, Lieutenant Schrank. We’re very impressionable.


 

Lieutenant Schrank: What’s a gang without its terrain, its turf? You’re a month or two away from finding out, one step ahead of the wrecking ball. And in this uncertain world, the only thing you can count on is me. I’m here to keep the civil peace until the last building falls. And if you boys make trouble on my turf, Riff, hand to heart, you’re headed to an upstate prison cell for a very long time. By the time you get out, this will be a shiny new neighbourhood of rich people in beautiful apartments, with Puerto Rican doormen to chase trash like you away.


 

Riff: [moviequotesandmore.com] I got a question for you, Lieutenant. How tall did you used to be before you, you know, “schrank”?


 

Riff: I’m thinking it’s past time for a rumble. For a all-in, all-out, once and for all, winner takes all, high-noon shootout at the OK Corral rumble!
Balkan: Wild blue yonder! About time!


 

Riff: Schrank doesn’t know his a** from his elbow. Look, Tony and me started the Jets. None of us would even be here if it wasn’t for all of us. And all you know it.


 

Tony: You don’t need me helping you screw up your life.
Riff: You know how I get. I will start running my mouth. You got command. You are West Side legendary! And, Tony. Tony, the Jets. I gave them my word you’d show.
Tony: Why would you do that?
Riff: Because it’s a rumble! We need you if we’re going to war. You can’t refuse us now. And because I know you. Or I thought I did, before you got all unlike yourself, before you went upstate.


 

Tony: [referring to Valentina] She gave me a job and a place to stay. She’s always been there for me, like nobody else. So don’t call her…
Riff: Oh, nobody, huh? Thanks, pal. Thanks a big fat lot.
Tony: You know I didn’t mean you wasn’t there. You was always there. Womb to tomb.
Riff: Sperm to worm.


 

Tony: The Jets are the greatest. And you, you’re like, you know, blood to me. But I’m scared of myself, Riff. What I done to that kid. What I almost done.
Riff: You got to get over that. What is the point in beating yourself up?
Tony: I want to be unlike how I was. Because I was disappearing down a sewer, and taking you and everything with me.


 

Tony: I had time. Lots of it. Locked up like that, and for the first time ever, I took a look inside. And that was rough, doing that. But I got to stay with myself. You know what I mean? Maybe stay, by myself, just for…
Riff: Yeah, you know what? You’re just too deep for me, kid. You know, I don’t know who I am. And who cares who I am? Nobody, including me.


 

Riff: [to Tony] I know that this dust that’s covering everything right now, that’s the four-story buildings that was standing here when you went upstate a year ago. You know, I wake up to everything I know either getting sold, or wrecked, or being taken over by people that I don’t like. And they don’t like me. And you know what’s left out of all that? The Jets. My guys. My guys, who are just like me. Who are just like you.


 

Valentina: [moviequotesandmore.com] Tony, wake up. I know you love Riff, but he hates Puerto Ricans. That is not you.
Tony: Riff don’t hate you.
Valentina: I married a gringo. He thinks that makes me a gringa, which it don’t. And I ain’t.


 

Valentina: [to Tony] Keep looking for better, mi milagro. Like you always done.


 

Maria: In Gimbels, there are lots of dresses that fit me.
Anita: And you don’t shop in Gimbels. You clean in Gimbels.

 

'Life matters, even more than love.' - Valentina (West Side Story) Click To Tweet

 

Anita: Bernardo will be so mad if we make him late. And I want to dance.
Maria: Bernardo’s always mad.


 

Maria: The boys think I’m a kid.
Anita: You are a kid, kiddo.


 

Chino: Let me join the Sharks.
Bernardo: Ay, muchacho, not this again.
Chino: Por favor, let me help you protect our people.
Bernardo: No. You keep out of that. It’s stupid. We got to do it, but it’s stupid.
Chino: Maria can’t like a lambeojo who just works day and night. Never stands up like her brother does.
Bernardo: She says all the time she doesn’t want anyone like me. Just be Chino. But be a Chino who dances.


 

Anita: [moviequotesandmore.com] Chino is going to be rich.
Chino: Well, not exactly, pero.
Bernardo: Boxers get rich.
Maria: Boxers get their brains knocked out.


 

Bernardo: The gringos tonight, they stare because…
Anita: Oh, like you don’t stare.
Bernardo: Because our girls make their girls look lousy.


 

Bernardo: [to Maria] The first gringo boy who smiles at you…
[imitates punching]


 

Tony: It’s funny, I wasn’t planning on showing up tonight.
Maria: You don’t like dancing?
Tony: No. I mean, yeah. I like it. I like it a lot, dancing with you. It’s just you’re…
Maria: You’re tall.
Tony: Yeah, I know. You’re not.


 

Maria: You’re not Puerto Rican?
Tony: You’re just figuring that out?
Maria: From down here, I wasn’t sure.
Tony: Is that okay? That I’m not?
Maria: I don’t know.


 

Tony: [as Maria tries to kiss him] I’m sorry. You just caught me by surprise, is all. I’m a by the book type, so.
Maria: By the book?
Tony: Try me again.
[they start to kiss]


 

Anita: [to Tony after he and Maria are caught together] Do you want to start World War Three?

 

'When love comes so strong, there is no right or wrong. Your love is your life.' - Maria, Anita (West Side Story) Click To Tweet

 

Bernardo: Why should we play on the playground with a bunch of…?
Riff: Control of your territory, that’s what you get. We keep clear out of your way, you’re Jet-free. If you win. We win, you see us coming, and we will keep coming, you Sharks make like the rats and skedaddle.


 

Tony: Can I come up?
Maria: No.
Tony: But I found you.
Maria: Please. My brother’s so angry now, he might…
Tony: I’ll make him like me. Everybody does.
Maria: There’s nobody who everybody likes.
Tony: Yeah, but so long as you like me, I’m okay with that.


 

Maria: [moviequotesandmore.com] Now, please go, or something bad will happen if you…
Tony: Run away with me. I’m serious. Don’t laugh.
Maria: Si, serious. Maybe tomorrow I’ll run away with you.
Tony: Tomorrow? Deal.


 

Maria: See you tomorrow, Tony.
Tony: You promise me?
Maria: What?
Tony: You got to see me tomorrow. Nobody else. Only me.

See more West Side Story Quotes


 

Maria: [singing] Tonight, tonight, it all began tonight. I saw you and the world went away. Tonight, tonight, there’s only you tonight. What you are, what you do, what you say.
Tony: [singing] Today, all day I had the feeling a miracle would happen. I know now I was right. For here you are. And what was just a world is a star.


 

Maria: Wait! Wait! I forgot why I called you.
Tony: I’ll wait till you remember.
Maria: Tony is Antonio?
Tony: Anton.
Maria: Te adoro, Anton.
Tony: Te adoro, Maria.


 

Maria, Tony: [singing] Good night. Good night. Sleep well. And when you dream, dream of me tonight.


 

Bernardo: Last night I dreamed I was back in Puerto Rico. In my dream, we had six kids.
Anita: Six kids? Marry a cat.
Bernardo: I’ve been asking you for five years.


 

Anita: [to Maria] Your brother has something to say to you.
Bernardo: I apologize, for behaving last night like a…
Anita: Like a gangster.


 

Maria: I’m a grown-up now, Bernardo. I can dance with anyone I like.
Bernardo: As long as he’s puertorriqueño.
Maria: But why? Tony’s a nice boy.
Bernardo: Tony?
Maria: Tony. Who cares if he’s a, I don’t know what he is. A Yankee?
Bernardo: He’s a Polack. That’s what he is. A big, dumb Polack.
Anita: “Polack,” says the spic. Now you sound like a real American.


 

Bernardo: I don’t want you to marry a gringo.
Maria: Marry him? I danced with him, Bernardo. For a minute, until you… You’re crazy. I can’t talk to you anymore.


 

Maria: Don’t fight with the Jets.
Bernardo: I want you to be happy.


 

Anita: [to Bernardo] Here, dead man, eat your eggs. And everyone, speak English.


 

Maria: But I’m here too. And I want to make a life, a home. Maybe go to City College like Rosalia’s cousin, Virginia. I want to be happy here.


 

Maria: That is what you think. I’m going to think for myself.
Bernardo: You keep away from him. As long as you’re in my house…
Anita: This ain’t your house. She pays rent here, same as me and you.
Bernardo: This is about family.


 

Maria: [to Bernardo] Maybe Chino and your friends fall down at your feet, and maybe you scare the Americano when you make fists and angry faces… And I am not interested in what you have to say.


 

Anita: You want to know where my home is? It’s where I pay rent. Right here, where I work my fingers raw, mending pants, and hemming neckties, so that I can earn enough money to pay other girls to sew for me. So that someday I can rent a shop of my own in this great, big, beautiful Nueva York. And if you think that I’m going back home to Puerto Rico with six kids that I put to bed hungry every night, amor de mi vida, you are dreaming.
Bernardo: In Puerto Rico, our kids won’t get fat like the kids in New York.


 

Tony: I want to do like Doc, find me a Puerto Rican girl.
Valentina: Ay, Tony, you don’t have enough troubles?
Tony: I don’t want to jinx it, but maybe I’m done with trouble.
Valentina: You are never done with troubles.


 

Tony: [trying to learn Spanish] What’s “forever”? Like, “I want to be with you forever.”
Valentina: You don’t want to start maybe with, “I’d like to take you out to coffee?”


 

Maria: Tell him, Riff, tell him not to. It’s because of us they’re going to fight, verdad?
Tony: Well, get your brother to call it off.
Maria: Bernardo’s too angry.
Tony: Well, Riff’s angry too, so.


 

Maria: My brother, there’s so much more against him than Riff. He’s angry because…
Tony: The whole world has been against Riff since he was born.
Maria: Do you think it’s easier for us?
Tony: Well, I think you come from families, homes. You and Bernardo, you have hope. You think Riff has that?
Maria: Riff could have hope if he didn’t try to take hope from people he doesn’t know.


 

Maria: Tony, if someone gets hurt because of what we do…
Tony: What did we do to anyone?
Maria: We don’t do anything wrong, liking each other, pero.
Tony: Maria, I don’t just like you.
Maria: We can’t pretend what we do doesn’t cause trouble.
Tony: I can’t talk my guys out of making trouble. Trouble’s what they’re made of.


 

Baby John: I can’t go to jail.
Diesel: You won’t. Long as you remember two things. One, tell them what they want to hear.
A-Rab: And two, don’t tell them nothing.


 

Tony: [to Maria] There was a rumble. And I busted up this kid. He was in the Egyptian Kings. He only didn’t die because of luck, like one more punch and he probably would’ve died. And I would’ve done it. I would’ve murdered this messed-up kid who wasn’t no different from me. And for a year in prison, and since I got out, I can’t quit thinking about what I almost done. I think about killing him, and it’s like I’m always just about to fall off the edge of the world’s tallest building. I stopped falling the second I saw you.


 

Maria: [to Tony] I shouldn’t have asked you to stop the fighting. I don’t want you to go anywhere near the fighting.


 

Tony: I, Anton, take you, Maria, rich or poor…
Maria: I’m poor.
Tony: I’m poorer.


 

Tony: We can’t be together while they’re brawling all around us. Because of us. I swear to you, Maria, there won’t be any fight.


 

Tony: [referring to Riff’s gun] Gee whillikers, Batman. Since when you carry a rod?
Riff: Well, I don’t got magic powers like you, Superman, so I got this. Promise to be with us tonight, I’ll let you hold it.
Tony: When are you going to grow up?
Riff: Never probably. Born to die young, daddy-o.


 

Riff: You know me, brother. I don’t look back.
Tony: Why? You afraid of what you’re going to see?
Riff: No, I look ahead.


 

Riff: [as Tony shows up at the rumble] And just when all hope is lost… So, is this the shot heard round the world, or just, you know, more of your bulls**t?
Tony: Don’t ask me about shooting, pal. You’re the one with the gun.
Riff: That’s right, and who are you? Friend or foe?
Tony: You’re out of control.


 

Tony: [to Bernardo] Can I talk to you?
Riff: Anything you need to say, you can say through me.
Bernardo: We talked enough. Let’s try something else.
Tony: You and me, we just got off on the wrong foot, is all.
Bernardo: I always know which foot I’m on.


 

Tony: This is not about skin. It’s about…
Riff: It’s about territory!
Tony: None of us would be here if any of us believed we had any place else to be.


 

Tony: I love her, Bernardo.


 

Chino: And Riff, he got stabbed, and…
Maria: Tony. Chino!
Chino: Tony killed Bernardo.
Maria: Chino! Liar!


 

Maria: You promised you would stop this. You promised you would stop this!
Tony: I tried. I tried.
Maria: And then you murdered him! No, no, you murdered me! You’re a killer! The killer!


 

Tony: I’m going to the cops. I just had to see you first.
Maria: If you let them take you from me, how do I forgive you for that?


 

Valentina: [singing] There’s a place for us. Somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet, and open air wait for us. Somewhere there’s a time for us. Someday a time for us. Time together, with time to spare, time to learn, time to care. Someday, somewhere, we’ll find a new way of living, we’ll find a way of forgiving.


 

Maria: I should go.
Tony: Where? Ay, no. Go to Doc’s. Valentina will know what to do. Tony! Promise me you will.


 

Maria: I love him.
[Anita slaps her]


 

Anita: [singing] A boy who kills cannot love.
Maria: [singing] I am his. I don’t care what he is
Anita: [singing] A boy who kills has no heart
Maria: [singing] I don’t know why it’s so.
Anita: [singing] And he’s the boy who gets your love.


 

Maria: [singing] What else can I do? I love him. I’m his. And everything he is, I am too. I have a love, and it’s all that I need. Right or wrong, and he needs me too. I love him. We’re one. There’s nothing to be done. Not a thing I can do. But hold him. Hold him forever. Be with him now, tomorrow, and all of my life.


 

Maria, Anita: [singing] When love comes so strong, there is no right or wrong. Your love is your life.


 

Anita: He will never be safe here.
Maria: Si, lo sé.
Anita: And no one will ever forgive him.
Maria: Will you?
Anita: You can’t ever ask me that.
Maria: Will you forgive me?
Anita: Te quiero, mi niña. But he will have to go away. And you will have to go with him.


 

Quique: Don’t you do what Bernardo did. You kill a gringo, they kill you.
Chino: Sooner or later, the gringos kill everything.


 

Maria: Chino is gentle. He doesn’t have a gun.
Lieutenant Schrank: Apparently, now he does.


 

Anybodys: [referring to Tony] How long’s he figure on holing up down there?
Ice: Till the heat dies down.
Baby John: When is that going to happen?
Anybodys: Two guys died, so never ever.


 

Baby John: Go back where you came from.
Anita: You think I want to stay here? In this city full of ugly, little animals like you? No, gracias.


 

Anita: [to Valentina] Tell Tony, you tell that murderer, Maria ain’t coming. Chino, he found out about them, Tony and Maria. He shot her. Maria is dead. You tell him that.


 

Valentina: [to the Jets gang] I know you. I know all of your names. Since you was born. I watched you grow up. And you have grown into rapists. You dishonour yourselves. You dishonour your dead.


 

Tony: We’re going to name all our girls Valentina. Because if you hadn’t cared for me, like you always done, I wouldn’t even be here alive, which maybe I shouldn’t be.
Valentina: Don’t ever say that, Tony. Life matters, even more than love.
Tony: They’re the same thing. Before Maria, maybe I would’ve said they ain’t. But now, it’s all life is. Even if it lasts no time at all. A month, a day even.


 

Tony: [after believing Chino killed Maria] Chino, kill me! Kill me too, Chino!


 

Maria: [singing to Tony after Chino shoots him] Only you. You’re the only thing I’ll see forever. In my eyes, in my words, and in everything I do, nothing else but you. Ever.
[Tony takes his last breath and dies]


 

Maria: [takes the gun from Chino] How do you fire it? Just pull this? How many bullets are left? Enough for you? And you? All of you! I can kill now because I hate now. I hate now. How many can I kill, Chino? And still have one bullet left for me!
[not being able to pull the trigger, the gangs come together to carry Tony’s body with Maria following]

 


 

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