“Music moves us, and we know not why;
We feel the tears, but cannot trace their source.
Is it the language of some other state,
Born of its memory? For what can wake
The soul's strong instinct of another world,
Like music?”

“Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it.”

“We do not know why we are born into the world, but we can try to find out what sort of a world it is — at least in its physical aspects.”

“The soul of man is like the rolling world,
One half in day, the other dipt in night;
The one has music and the flying cloud,
The other, silence and the wakeful stars.”

“[Is "90 Millas" another crossover -- into World Music? ] I can see that. The core is African rhythm -- half of the world's music comes from that. The difference between our music and American blues: Cubans may have been slaves, but in Cuba slaves became part of the family. They could buy their freedom. And they are Island people. And Island people are happier. But, you know, in the '80s, when we released "Conga," wasn't that World Music? Everywhere we went, people got it. And why? The drums. So maybe all music is World Music, and the only question is: Do you like it?”

“The link between us and music consists in choosing what we like and makes us feel good, not what is imposed on us.”

“The task of art is to transform what is continuously happening to us, to transform all of these things into symbols, into music, into something which can last in man’s memory. That is our duty. If we don’t fulfill it, we feel unhappy.”

“The ocean makes its music; the wind does its dance. We hold on. At first we hold on to one another, but then it starts to feel like we are holding on to something even bigger than that. Greater.”

“The music was like the memory of joys that are past, pleasant and mournful to the soul.”

“LANGUAGE, n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.”