Quotes

You are defined by who are, by your choices in life, in all regards, not just in doing movies.

Freedom is not negotiable.

They say a lot of women would like to see me naked, but there's not a lens long enough for that.

Becoming a producer enables you to empower yourself, to make the film that you want to make. I have desires to make movies - I have movies I'm developing, and things that I'm interested in.

Children make you a better everything. Daughters open up a whole different sensibility to you. When you have children, it focuses you on them as opposed to on yourself.

Everything I do in my life is very instinctual and in the moment. If I'm attracted to something, that's it. If I have reservations, those don't change till they're resolved. My first impression is how I go.

I approach my work musically a lot in terms of the way maybe a jazz musician would approach an improvisation on a theme.

I don't control the movies that are offered to me, but I make choices based on certain parameters.

I live in a house full of women, dolls and conga drums!

I still have a leather jacket my brother wore in the '60s. It doesn't fit me, but I figure maybe it'll fit my daughter.

I was a banquet waiter at the Beverly Hilton hotel. You learn a lot when you're in the service industry - the jerks of the world really come to the fore. It's a valuable learning experience to be in the position where you're of service to someone who sometimes doesn't even know you're there.

I'll be with it as long as it takes. Certainly, in this business you need a tremendous amount of inner fortitude to be in it for any kind of length of time, and I've already been doing this for twenty years. I'm just going to keep on working on the things that reach me, the things that I want to be associated with and identified with, both as an actor and a filmmaker.

I'm a staunch anti-Castro individual.

I'm attracted to classical things, not fads. I'm sure everybody has a'70s photograph of himself with a velvet lapel and a wide tie. But I like pieces that have age to them.

I'm not the type of person who goes through all this effort for a movie, and then doesn't care if anybody sees it. I want them to see it, and I want them to see it on the big screen.

I've had my moments of insanity. But there is a certain responsibility to set proper examples for your children, and that influences your choices in every aspect of your life.

If you want to experiment, do something temporary.

In the '40s and '50s, Havana was the Paris of the Caribbean. Everyone was always well-dressed.

It's better not to work than to work in something you don't want to be working in.

Movies are very hard to make, to get it all to come together. So many people have their say in what the end product of films are.

My first interest was always music, and somehow that channelled itself into films and acting. I don't know what the natural transition of it was. I mean I acted a little bit when I was young and like any kid would in a community theatre.

My grandfather was a very elegant individual. My father also. He was a lawyer and farmer in Cuba. In Miami, he had to go to work wherever he could. But whenever it was time to go out, you saw how they cared for how they looked.

My uncle, who was a little more flamboyant, always said the guy who dressed the best was Fred Astaire.

So for directors, actors, producers, writers-whoever encompasses the creative elements of a film - you have a hit, everyone's happy, and you're the hottest thing in the world. But if the movie doesn't open, then those realities do come into play.

That's why you end up producing or directing. Because if you don't try to make these stories, you can't expect anyone else to come up with that idea and offer it to you. So you assume certain aspirations and goals, in order to tell certain tales. So you become the producer out of necessity, maybe not out of real desires.

We didn't bring much out of Cuba. On the way to the airport they searched you and took everything, and then they put you on a plane.

You have to love the guy that you play, even if you play the villain, you've got to love him.