She is Cuba. If you want to love her, you have to be with her, but you can`t be with her in her current state. It`s the point of view of all exiles - you have to leave the thing you cherish most.

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.

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

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.

I`m an exile. My father had the courage to leave with his wife, his mother and three children under twelve. It took more courage to leave, to sacrifice everything for freedom, than to stay.

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.

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

If you want to experiment, do something temporary.

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.

I wish we didn`t have to tell this story.

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 think if the movie has resonance and stimulates the viewer to talk about it, you can have as large an audience as you want. The most important thing for me is that the movie exists. And that`s success enough already.

Freedom is not negotiable.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I`m a staunch anti-Castro individual.

I spent seven years without working, so if they`re making cop movies, I`ll play cops. I got two kids to bring up.

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.

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

I never applied to go back to Cuba. They did invite me to the Havana Film Festival, but I am opposed to the regime in Cuba. I`d have liked to go back every day of my life. But in honor of all the people who have died and suffered under that regime, I`m not able to make that leap.

I don`t control the movies that are offered to me, but I make choices based on certain parameters.