That spirit of mockery characteristic of the guaracha was part of the mambo from the beginning.

Chano Pozo created the role of the conga soloist in the modern band, somewhat th way Coleman Hawkins created the solo tenor sax.

Like slaves on the sugar plantations of the Antilles, ...the sugar slaves of southern Louisiana had negative birthrates for as long as slavery lasted.

Miguelito, liberated from having to sing with Cugat, sounds like he just got out of jail and is letting it rip.

One often reads that the 1950s was the golden age of Cuban music, but it was really one long phase, from 1937 to 1958, each year with its own splendour.

Every farm with slaves was a slave-breeding farm. Raising slaves was mostly a cottage industry.

Up through and including Lincoln, American politicians nursed a fantasy of repatriating blacks to Africa.

The forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.

I have a great need to learn what the norm is by dealing with what is not the norm... with the grotesque and the fantastic.

The precise instant of creation is when you choose the subject. (meaning that the essential thing occurs at the moment when he, the photographer, meets the reality he wishes to capture.

For years Don Imus was just - boy, he was merciless in his criticism of me. Maybe it was justified, but that didn't mean it didn't hurt.

Spend time all day and all night monitoring your thoughts, constantly keeping them in a high plateau. Avoid places and people that pull your energy down.

If people knew how KFC treats its chickens, they'd never eat another drumstick.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent

I just want to say that, all you do, no matter how bad your diet is, for the first six months or year, I just reduce the amount, even if it's horrible stuff. That you can deal with it.

I've never worked so hard for anything in my life as I have for you.

Use your power to do whatever it takes to secure for humankind an enduring place on this little blue speck in the universe - our only hope.