To realize the American dream, the most important thing to understand is that it belongs to everybody. It's a human dream. If you understand this and work very hard, it is possible.

I'm very, very Spanish. I have fat cheeks on both ends. I'm sitting on my Spanish part. And it's my heart, the way I am, the way I speak. It has nothing to do with the way I look.

People look at you and see that you've made it, but sometimes they forget that it took you years of being a human being.

America was the place that said, 'It doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter what your last name is, it doesn't matter if you drink cortaditos, or lattes, or coffee with milk. Here, if you work hard, anything is possible.

In my house, we speak Spanglish to the dogs, to the grandchildren, to the kids.

You have to eat right. That does not mean that I don't drink Cuban coffee. That does not mean that I do not have two cigarettes a day - that's what I'm down to. I drink wine - you know, I'm normal. But I do eat well.

I'm a royal pain in the behind.