I'm truly blessed, because many of my friends come to Cuba. They like it here-they can relax and not worry about drive-by shootings or getting raped.

People are tried and convicted in the newspapers and on television before they ever see a courtroom.

We need to be weapons of mass construction, weapons of mass love. It's not enough just to change the system. We need to change ourselves.

I'm crafting a vision of my life that involves creativity. And Cuban society allows me to do this. I know it's harder in the U.S. where so many people are just grateful to have a job.

Being a warrior and being a struggler has been forced on me by oppression, otherwise I would have been free to be so much more.

I think that one of the great things that the Cuban revolution has done is preserve history.

Black revolutionaries do not drop from the moon. We are created by our conditions. Shaped by our oppression.