“Revolutionaries must proclaim their ideas courageously … and express their intentions so that no one is deceived.”

There is no more democratic government than a revolutionary government.

It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action.

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.

I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.

We must establish a new world order based on justice, on equity, and on peace.

Forgive me for using the term ‘fat little brother’. It is not a criticism, rather a suggestion that he do some exercises and go on a diet, don’t you think? I’m doing this for the gentleman’s health.

The first thing dictators do is finish free press, to establish censorship. There is no doubt that a free press is the first enemy of dictatorship.

North Americans don’t understand that our country is not just Cuba; our country is also humanity.

The revolution has no time for elections. There is no more democratic government in Latin America than the revolutionary government.

There is not Communism or Marxism, but representative democracy and social justice in a well-planned economy.

Warfare is a means and not an end. Warfare is a tool of revolutionaries. The important thing is the revolution. The important thing is the revolutionary cause, revolutionary ideas, revolutionary objectives, revolutionary sentiments, revolutionary virtues!

Democracy’s my idea. I do not agree with communists, my acts prove. Free press in Cuba – free ideas, freedom religion belief.

I can assure you that my first and foremost interest is my country. This is not a personal matter. We are not people driven by a wish to be in the government since it is for us the least attractive work, even though we are politicians.

If we had paused to tell the people that we were Marxist-Leninists while we were on Pico Turquino and not yet strong, it is possible that we would never have been able to descend to the plains.

The revenues of Cuban state-run companies are used exclusively for the benefit of the people, to whom they belong.

No government can sell its nation on the backs of its people.

The tango is a direct expression of something that poets have often tried to state in words: the belief that a fight may be a celebration.

Geometry alone is not enough to portray human desires, expressions, aspirations, joys. We need more.

With a good script a good director can produce a masterpiece; with the same script a mediocre director can make a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.

For truly cinematic expression, the camera and the microphone must be able to cross both fire and water.

All manners of freedom, including freedom of expression, freedom of conscious, freedom of thought…it accepts tolerance. But it is not an atheist society.

The things that are said in literature are always the same. What is important is the way they are said.

Exposition suggests a great trust in the reader, and this expression of trust makes a book feel tender.

When I write, I do it urged by an intimate necessity. I don’t have in mind an exclusive public, or a public of multitudes, I don’t think in either thing. I think about expressing what I want to say. I try to do it in the simplest way possible.