West Side Story Quotes

Riff: Now I know Tony like I know me and I guarentee you can count him in

Action: In, out, let's get crackin'

Gee-tar: Where you gonna find Bernardo?

Riff: He'll be at the dance tonight at the gym

A-Rab: 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: Look, Tony, I've never asked the time of day from a clock but I'm asking you, come to the dance tonight. I already told the gang you'd be there. If you don't show I'll be marked lousy.

Tony: What time?

Riff: Ten.

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've been waitin' on will be twitchin at the dance tonight.

Tony: Who knows? Could be... Who knows?

[first lines]

[the Jets dance across the streets of New York, eventually coming to a playground where they toss around a basketball. The ball is intercepted by Bernardo, leader of the Sharks]

Riff: [snaps fingers at Bernardo] Come on.

[Bernardo drops the ball, Riff picks it up]

Riff: Beat it.

Maria: My brother is a silly watchdog!

Bernardo: Ah, my sister is a precious jewel!

Anita: What am I, cut glass?

Riff: Four-and-a-half years I live wit' a buddy an' his family. I think I'm diggin' a guy's character... Boy, I'm a victim of disappointment in you.

Tony: End ya sufferin', little man. Why dontcha just pack up ya gear an' move out?

Riff: 'Cause ya ma's hot fa me...

Tony: You heard - it's gonna be a fair fight!

Doc: And that's going to cure something?

Tony: From here on in, everythin's gonna be all right! I got a feelin'!

Doc: What have you been taking tonight?

Tony: A trip to the moon! And I'll tell ya a secret. It ain't a man that's up there, Doc. It's a girl, lady. Buenas noches, Senor.

Doc: Buenas noches? So that's why you made it a fair fight...

Tony: I'm gonna see her tomorrow an' I can't wait!

Doc: Tony... things aren't tough enough?

Tony: Tough? Doc, I'm in love!

Doc: And you're not frightened?

Tony: Should I be?

Doc: [after a pause] No. I'm frightened enough for the both of us.

Anita: You have your big important council. The council,

[kiss]

Anita: or me.

[kiss]

Bernardo: First one,

[kiss]

Bernardo: then the other.

[Tries to kiss her, she pulls away]

Anita: Ah, I'm an American girl now, I don't wait.

Bernardo: Ah, back home women know their place.

Anita: Back home little boys don't have war councils.

Bernardo: Ah, but they do here. You want me to be an American, don't you?

The Girls: [singing] I like to be in America, OK by me in America, everything free in America...

Bernardo: [singing] For a small fee in America!

[singing]

Bernardo: I'd like to go back to San Juan.

Anita: I know a boat you can get on!

Tony: I- I didn't believe hard enough.

Maria: Loving is enough.

Tony: Not here. They won't let us be.

Maria: Then we'll run away.

Tony: Yeah, we can.

Maria: Yes.

Tony: We will...

Maria: [singing] Hold my hand and we are halfway there, hold my hand and I'll take you there. Somehow! Someday! Some...

Maria: If Chino hurts him, if he touches him, I swear to you I'll...

Anita: You'll do what Tony did to Bernardo?

Maria: I love Tony.

Anita: I know. I loved Benardo.

Riff: Look, when the Sharks come, you chicks cut out, huh?

Graziella, Riff's Girl: We might, and then again we might not.

Riff: This ain't kid's stuff, Graziella.

Graziella, Riff's Girl: I and Velma ain't kid's stuff, neither. Are we, Velma?

Velma, Ice's Girl: No thank you.

[snap]

Velma, Ice's Girl: oo

[snap]

Velma, Ice's Girl: Ooo-belee-oo.

Graziella, Riff's Girl: And you can punctuate it...

Velma, Ice's Girl: Ooo.

[last lines]

Maria: Te adoro, Antone.

Anybodys, Tomboy: I ain't never gonna get married. Too noisy.

A-Rab: You ain't never gonna get married. Too ugly.

Anybodys, Tomboy: [mimes firing a gun] Pow!

A-Rab: Cracko Jacko! Down goes a teenage hoodlum.

Bernardo: [singing] Everyone there will give big cheers!

Anita: [singing] Everyone there will have moved here!

Anybodys, Tomboy: Hey buddy boys!

Action: Ah, go wear a skirt.

Anybodys, Tomboy: Ah, I got scabby knees! Listen...

Ice: The first thing we do is we start showin' around like we have nothin' to hide...

Anybodys, Tomboy: Listen!

A-Rab: Supposin' they ask us about the rumble?

Anybodys, Tomboy: Supposin' they ask you where's Tony and what party's lookin' for him? WITH A GUN.

Ice: Hey, you know somethin'?

Anybodys, Tomboy: I know I gotta go get a skirt.

Riff: Come on, Jets, round out! Not you, Anybodys, beat it.

Anybodys, Tomboy: Ah, Riff, you gotta let me in the gang! Didn't you just see me, I was smash, I'm a killer, I wanna fight!

A-Rab: How else's she gonna get a guy to touch her?

Anybodys, Tomboy: You dirty rat!

[lunges at him]

Tony: You're not thinking I'm someone else?

Maria: I know you are not.

Tony: Or that we've met before?

Maria: I know we have not.

Tony: I felt, I knew something never before was going to happen, had to happen. But this is so much more.

Maria: My hands are cold.

[he takes them in his]

Maria: Yours too.

[he moves them to his face]

Maria: So warm.

[she moves his to hers]

Tony: So beautiful.

Maria: Beautiful.

Tony: It's so much to believe. You're not making a joke?

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

Baby John: Hey... you gotta handkerchief first?

A-Rab: What's wrong with your sleeve?

Anita: We came with our hearts open!

Consuelo: With our arms open!

Pepe: [to Consuelo] You came with your mouth open!

Glad Hand, Social Worker Leading Dance: I want you all the form two circles. The boys on the outside and the girls on the inside.

Action: Where will you be?

Doc: When do you kids stop? You make this world lousy!

Action: We didn't make it, Doc.

Lieutenant Schrank: All right, wise guys. Now you listen to me. All of ya! You hoodlums don't own these streets. And I've had all the roughhouse I'm gonna put up with around here! You wanna kill each other, kill each other! But you ain't gonna do it on my beat. Are there any questions?

Bernardo: Yes sir. Would you mind translating that into Spanish?

Lieutenant Schrank: Get your... friends outta here Bernardo. And stay out!

[Mock charm]

Lieutenant Schrank: Please.

Bernardo: Okay, Sharks. *Vaminos.*

[Leaves with his gang]

Lieutenant Schrank: Boy oh boy! As if this neighborhood wasn't crummy enough!

[Pleasantly, to the Jets]

Lieutenant Schrank: Now look, fellas. Let's be reasonable. If I don't get a little law and order around here, I get busted down to a traffic corner. And your friend don't like traffic corners. So that means you're gonna start making nice with the PRs from now on.

[Grabs A-Rab by the shoulder]

Lieutenant Schrank: I said nice, get it? Because if you don't, and I catch any of you doing any more brawlin' in my territory, I'm gonna personally beat the living crud out of each and every one of you and see that you go to the can and rot there. Say good-bye to the nice boys, Krupke.

Officer Krupke: Good-bye, boys.

Officer Krupke: [to Baby John] You.

Baby John: Who, me sir?

Officer Krupke: Yeah, you. Didn't ya hear me?

Baby John: Oh, yes sir. I got 20-20 hearing.

Officer Krupke: [not amused] Then why didn't ya answer me?

A-Rab: His mother told him never to answer back to a cop.

Officer Krupke: You little wise apple! You want me to run you in?

A-Rab: Oh indeed not, *sir*.

Action: [pretending to be a psychiatrist] Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease.

Riff: Hey! I got a social disease!

Bernardo: [singing] Everywhere grime in America / Organised crime in America / Terrible time in America

Anita: You forget I'm in America

A-Rab: Baby John, what are you doin' here?

Baby John: Nothin'.

A-Rab: What are you doin' nothin' here for? Come on.

Baby John: I don't want the guys to see me A-Rab.

A-Rab: Why not?

Baby John: I'm cryin'.

A-Rab: You are? What for?

Baby John: I don't know. I just...

A-Rab: Blow your nose.

Baby John: A-Rab?

A-Rab: Yeah?

Baby John: Did you get a look at their faces?

A-Rab: Which faces?

Baby John: You know, at the rumble. Riff and Bernardo.

A-Rab: Yeah. I wish it was yesterday.

Baby John: Me too. I'm scared!

A-Rab: Well cut it out. You hear me? Cut it out!

Baby John: A-Rab, what are we gonna do?

A-Rab: We're gonna meet with the other guys and form up. Thats what we're gonna do. Come on, lets go.

Baby John: A-Rab, you got a hankerchief first?

A-Rab: Whats wrong with you sleeve?

Action: We gotta show them who's on top! The Jets!

Baby John: Haven't you had enough?

Action: What are you scared?

Baby John: Who's scared?

Action: We've gotta show them who's on top!

Joyboy: The Jets!

Action: Let's do it now!

Baby John: Hey, haven't we had enough?

Action: What's the matter; you scared?

Baby John: Well... who're you callin' scared?

A-Rab: Lay off of him.

Action: Mind your own business.

A-Rab: Don't start up on me, or I'll punch in your stupid...

Action: You'll do what? Huh?

[Action and A-Rab start fighting]

Ice: KNOCK IT OFF!

Riff: We gotta stand up to them Doc; it's important.

Doc: Fighting over a little piece of street is so important?

Action: To us it is!

Doc: To hoodlums it is!

Action: Who're you callin' a hoodlum?

Doc: War councils...

Action: Don't start, Doc.

Doc: ...Rumbles...

Action: D'you hear me, Doc?

Doc: Why, when I was your age...

Action: When *you* was my age? When my old man was my age, when my brother was my age... You was never my age, none of ya! And the sooner you creeps get hip to that, the sooner you'll dig us!

Doc: I'll dig you an early grave, that's what I'll dig.

Doc: I'll dig you an early grave, that's what I'll dig.

A-Rab: [snaps his fingers] Dig, dig, dig...

Lieutenant Schrank: [as they exit] Say goodbye to the nice boys, Krupke.

Officer Krupke: Goodbye, boys.

Snowboy: [mimicking Krupke] "Goodbye, boys."

Action: [mimicking Shranke] "You hoodlums don't own the streets."

Snowboy: "Go play in the park!"

Action: "Keep off of the grass."

Ice: "Get outta the house!"

Action: "Keep off the block!"

A-Rab: "Get outta here!"

Action: "Keep off of the world!" A gang that don't own the street is nothin'!

Riff: WE DO OWN IT!

Lieutenant Schrank: You Puerto Ricans get what you've been itching for, use of the playground, use of the gym, the streets, the candy store. So what if you do turn this whole town into a stinkin' pig sty?

Bernardo: [Bernado jumps up but the Jets stop him from attacking Schrank]

Lieutenant Schrank: Don't stop him! He wants to get home, write a few letters to San Juan tell 'em how he's got it made over here! What I mean is... Clear out, you! I said, clear out!

Bernardo: [Bernardo and the Sharks move towards Schrank]

Lieutenant Schrank: Yeah, sure, I know. It's a free country, I ain't got the right. But I got a badge. What do you got? Things are tough all over. Beat it.

Bernardo: [Bernardo and the Sharks leave, whistling] My Country 'Tis of Thee...

Lieutenant Schrank: Do you mind?

Doc: I have no mind. I am the village idiot.

Tony: You know what Maria and me are gonna do out in the country? We're gonna have kids, lots of 'em, and name them all after you-even the girls. That way when you come and visit...

Doc: [slaps him] Wake up! Is this the only way to get to you? Fight like all you kids do?

Tony: [angrily] I ain't playing anymore, CAN'T ANY OF YOU GET THAT?

Anybodys, Tomboy: [agitatedly] BUT THE GANG!

Tony: You're a girl! be a girl and beat it!

Anybodys, Tomboy: [spitefully] Bernardo's girl wants to help?

Action: Even a greaseball's got feelin's.

Anybodys, Tomboy: But she wants to help get Tony!

Anita: [panicking] NO!

Doc: [frustrated] Why do you kill?

Tony: [picks up the scattered money] I told you how it happened, Maria understands, I thought you did too.

Lieutenant Schrank: At the gym last night, your brother got into a heavy argument because you danced with the wrong boy.

Maria: Yes

Lieutenant Schrank: Who was that boy?

Maria: Another from my country.

Lieutenant Schrank: And his name?

Maria: Jose.

Riff: Now move in and shake hands.

Bernardo: For what?

Riff: Well, that's the way it's done, buddy boy.

Bernardo: More gracious living. Everyone of you hates everyone of us, and we *hate* you right back.

Anybodys, Tomboy: [pretending to shoot A-rab] POW, POW!

A-Rab: Cracko jacko. Down goes a teenage hoodlum.

[drops to the ground]

Baby John: Gee. Could a real zip gun make you do like that?

Anybodys, Tomboy: You don't know what a zip gun would do? Man, you better wear diapers.

Baby John: Eh, go walk the streets like your sister.

Anybodys, Tomboy: Listen jailbait, I licked you twice and I can do it again!

[pounces on Baby John]

Action: What are we doin', poopin' around with dumb broads for?

Graziella, Riff's Girl: I and Velma ain't dumb!

[repeated line]

Bernardo: Hey, Jets!