"I believe that all of us ought to retire relatively young."
January 1967, interview in Playboy

"Condemn me, it does not matter. History will absolve me."
October 16 1953, at his trial for the raid on Moncada barracks

"A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past."
January 1961, Havana, speech on the second anniversary of the Cuban revolution

"The leading symbol of the hagiography of US mercantilism."
December 1998, on Santa Claus

"I have concluded - maybe a little late - that speeches must be short."
August 2000

"It seems that the empire finally has a new leader. From the new boss, we expect little"
December 2000, on the election of George Bush

"The plan was to kill him any way we could ... we would have strangled him if we had to."
A Cuban exile on Castro's trip to the Dominican Republic, August 1998

"For me he is a god."
Diego Maradona introducing Castro as his chatshow guest, October 2005