Ricardo Alarcon Quotes

Meeting Fidel Castro was really cool. It's cool because it's Fidel, and it's a world leader, and there's so much history behind the man and who he is in this hemisphere. And then at the end of the day, he's, I think, just like a big mayor. There's only, like, 11 million people in Cuba. He's a big mayor.

Fidel Castro claimed that history would absolve him, but it can also condemn him.

Fidel Castro for me is like a father.

Che came in 1963, shortly after I had come to power.

For the last 60 years, dictator Fidel Castro was America's most persistent adversary. Although Castro formally handed off to his brother, Raul, eight years ago, the communist leader was a symbolic force in Cuba and around the world.

I like Fidel Castro and his beard.

Few living figures could contribute as much as Castro to our understanding of the second half of the 20th century.

[Describing John F. Kennedy:] He is sort of an Indian snake charmer.

History will absolve me.

It is very difficult to capture over the centuries, the charisma of an individual.

I've learned to appreciate the thinking of John Kennedy.

A political event was that I met Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary. He is a young, intelligent guy, very sure of himself and extraordinarily audacious; I think we hit it off well.

He may not have been a good actor, and I personally don't think he was a good president, but I'll tell you this: Ronald Reagan was a helluva character.

I first interviewed Fidel Castro 39 years ago. He was charming and fiercely guarded about his private life. He called our interviews 'fiery debates.' During our times together, he made clear to me that he was an absolute dictator and that he was a staunch opponent of democracy.

Comandante Fidel Castro is the greatest revolutionary of the 20th Century, bar none.

Fidel Castro is loved down into the children. The Revolution won't die!

Mandela means a lot to the world. He's something special. There's only a few people in the history of mankind with that kind of charisma.

Fidel Castro gave it all to make his nation serviceable to all who desire real change. That's why I love Fidel Castro, and that's why he will never die.

You can't have a discussion about politics without mentioning Ronald Reagan.

Certainly I think the election of John Kennedy and all he stood for was one that really was an inspiration.

President Kennedy was the greatest man I ever met, and the best friend I ever had.

Reagan has very significant things to teach us - positive lessons and quite negative lessons.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

I lived in Cuba - I was there for one year in the 1950s. We built the famous nightclub, which is still there, Tropicana, and a restaurant, Montecatini, that I opened is still there. I was there when the U.S. ambassador said everyone must leave because Castro was arriving the next morning.

In my first book, Under Fire, I wrote that I revered Ronald Reagan. That was a dozen years ago. I still feel that way. I think he changed the world for the better for my children and my children's children.