I think in New York we had respect and we would pretty much fill up the places where we went, but I never got the sense that we really were Number 1 here in New York among the Latin crowds.

Everyone comes back. It makes no difference how far we wander, we always have our country, our land, in our souls and our minds.

They're making a ton of money, and no one is getting a nickel.

And, he'd seen me in Panama, and he talked about maybe doing something in New York so I hooked it up when I came here and I recorded in 1969 my first album with Pete Rodriguez.

What is interesting in this is the exchange of music that occurred between New Orleans and Cuba, I mean, they had ferries that would go from one port to another.

I was a kid, and I remember my mother singing. She was also a radio soap opera actress, but my mother sang.

Every band had their own distinctive sound, but it was pretty much dancing music and rhythmic music with a tremendous emphasis on copying the Cuban models.

People are a lot smarter than anyone gives them credit for being.

So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America.

So that when I came from Panama... my family was exiled in 1973 and they went to Miami.

Anywhere you had a commerce center, you had a lot of music.

God called you because He needs you

When barriers are put in front of you, it's God or the universe asking you to remember who you are, and reminding you not to let yourself be defined by things outside of you.

If I had kids, I don't think I would recommend they pursue a career in music.

Epitaphs for a gravestone: 'Please: no hooliganism'; or 'Es prohibe se hace agua aqui'; or 'No comment'.

Grandchildren: the only people who can get more out of you than the IRS.

Sounds always fascinated me.

Where progress is desire, change is Inevitable.

Women's tennis is two sets of rubbish that lasts only half an hour.

I have fixed more sentences than most people have read in their lives.

Nobody notices me. Nobody thinks I'm me. But then I look less like me than most of the people coming to our concerts.