Fidel Castro is a man with a great sense of self-criticism and respect for his political friends. He is not going to give me instructions, and I am not the type of man who would take them. That's not to say that I don't approve of what is happening in Cuba, but he would never send me a letter telling me what to do or not to do.
The feeling is that Fidel Castro's much bigger than he actually is.
Of course in Miami, not denouncing Fidel Castro at every turn is almost as bad as saying Gloria Estefan can't sing.
[Fidel Castro] has a very good [human rights] record.
Fidel Castro was loved and hated passionately.
I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba.
What's happening in Cuba is not a failure of the Cuban people. It's a failure of Fidel Castro and the Communists.
I've had meetings with Fidel Castro. I've had meetings with Kim Il-Sung. I've had meetings with other dictators. I've met with the Butcher of Beijing. You know, I think it's important to hear, you know, each other's perspective.
The collapse of the Soviet bloc ended the massive subsidies that had kept the Cuban economy afloat. The once-vaunted education and health care systems fell into disrepair. Fidel Castro's stubbornness, meanwhile, made political and economic change difficult in Cuba.
All the revolutions have happened when a Fidel or Marx or Lenin or whatever, who were intellectuals, were able to get through to the workers. They got a good pocket of people together and the workers seemed to understand that they were in a repressed state.
Unless we make revolutionary reforms, some day - in some unknown serra - some unknown Fidel Castro will rise up in Brazil.
Fidel Castro declared that a robot would do a better job as president than Barack Obama. After hearing this, Mitt Romney thanked Castro for his endorsement.
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.
As his country crumbled around him, Fidel Castro's stature diminished abroad and at home.
From its earliest days, the Cuban Revolution has also been a source of inspiration to all freedom-loving people. We admire the sacrifices of the Cuban people in maintaining their independence and sovereignty in the face of the vicious imperialist-orquestrated campaign to destroy the impressive gain made in the Cuban Revolution. Long live the Cuban Revolution. Long live comrade Fidel Castro.
Fidel Castro claimed that history would absolve him, but it can also condemn him.
I love Fidel Castro, I respect Fidel Castro, you know why? A lot of people have wanted to kill Fidel Castro for the last 60 years, but that motherf****r is still here.
I like Fidel Castro and his beard.
Some people say to me, "My God, but Fidel Castro is a communist!" I say: "No, he was a messenger of God. "
Fidel Castro was not interested in personal enrichment. His supporters say he deployed his enormous authority on behalf of health, education and welfare programs that brought Cuba attention around the world.
