“To excel is to reach your own highest dream. But you must also help others, where and when you can, to reach theirs. Personal gain is empty if you do not feel you have positively touched another’s life.”

For Castro, freedom starts with education. And if literacy alone were the yardstick, Cuba would rank as one of the freest nations on Earth.

I didn’t get ahead by sleeping with people. Girls, take heart!

I don’t know about you, but I can never get enough David Letterman.

Don’t let the bastards get you down.

Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.

Celebrities used to be found in clusters, like oysters – and with much the same defensive mechanisms.

Children are God’s way of punishing us for having sex.

A conversation isn’t a competition.

The origin of a modern party is anthropological: humans meet and share food to lower hostility between them and indicate friendship.

When your child is in trouble, the first thing you do is blame yourself.

But for Muslims, everything that they don’t have on earth is what they get in heaven. They can drink, they can have sex. All of the forbidden pleasures on earth, you can have in paradise.

For a man who likes to talk, Fidel Castro does very few interviews.

The hardest thing you will ever do is trust yourself.

A job is not a career. I think I started out with a job. It turned into a career and changed my life.

A Hot Fudge Sundae and a trashy novel is my idea of heaven.

It’s a fact that it is much more comfortable to be in the position of the person who has been offended than to be the unfortunate cause of it.

Dream big don’t let anybody or anything break your wishbone. Stay strong, full of faith, and courageous. Keep that backbone straight. And along the way, don’t forget to laugh and enjoy the journey.

When the world is too much create your own. I do it every day.

I like my soul when it touches yours; winter turns to summer and my nightmares become dreams.

If your habits don’t line up with your dream, then you need to either change your habits or change your dream.

The dreams I chased took me on a journey, a journey more rewarding than the goals.

My period days didn’t make me falter: they made me more determined to pursue my dreams.

I’m living the exact life I planned on living when I was five.

Study hard. Work hard. Play harder. Don’t be bound by rules, don’t hurt anybody and never ever live somebody else’s dream.