I was told before my first trip that no city in the world offered the dreams you could have sleeping in Havana. But nobody warned me that Havana also always feels like an exhausting nightmare that never quite fulfills the promise of what it's threatening you with.

While Fidel Castro used to deliver his marathon seven-hour speeches in Havana, Cubans used to joke that if Spanish lacked a future tense, their leader would be speechless. He was only fluent in broken promises, they lamented.

In Old Havana, the names of the streets before the revolution provided a glimpse into the city's state of mind. You might have known someone who lived on the corner of Soul and Bitterness, Solitude and Hope, or Light and Avocado.

I like the idea of being warm and secure. That's what home should be. That you have a sense of warmth, security, love, and you love the things around you and surround yourself with beauty.

When I was a young boy, growing up in Durham, North Carolina, the women in my family were truly passionate about their clothes; nothing was more beautiful to me than women dressing with the utmost, meticulous attention to accessories, shoes, handbags, hats, coats, dresses and gloves to attend Sunday church services.

Valentino made my day suit for the wedding of Paloma Picasso in Paris.

It's always great to have things from France at a wedding. It's symbolic of style, of culture, of taste.

I know what it is like to be brought up with unconditional love. In my life that came from my grandmother.

I'd like to be remembered as someone who made a difference in the lives of young people - that I nurtured someone and taught them to pursue their dreams and their careers, to leave a legacy.

I personally go to the airport looking like a homeless person, because I think people will leave me alone. But I dress myself with my luggage - all my luggage matches.

One my favorite things is to go to the provinces of Russia and see the 18th century wood churches with the onion dome architecture. These humble wonders of incredible imagination of architects that were obviously not living in places like Paris or London, but they've created these amazing churches.

I will sit in the car on the way to a meeting and just smile. I really mean that. It helps you get through life. If you have nothing to say, smile. Look up at the sky and smile. Just be grateful.

Poetry and beauty are always making peace. When you read something beautiful you find coexistence; it breaks walls down.

History laughs at both the victim and the aggressor.

Some people ask, 'How do you attract the young and so many different people when your poetry is complicated and different?' I say, 'My accomplishment is that my readers trust me and accept my suggestions for change.'

Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by.

I believe in the power of poetry, which gives me reasons to look ahead and identify a glint of light.

I see poetry as spiritual medicine.

To be under occupation, to be under siege, is not a good inspiration for poetry.

The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.

Sarcasm helps me overcome the harshness of the reality we live, eases the pain of scars and makes people smile.

My purpose in performing is to communicate the joy I experience in living.

Peace is a conscious choice.

At times I've got a really big ego. But I'll tell you the best thing about me. I'm some guy's dad; I'm some little gal's dad. When I die, if they say I was Annie's husband and Zachary John and Anna Kate's father, boy, that's enough for me to be remembered by. That's more than enough.

I would like to say to people, open your eyes and find beauty where you normally don't expect it.

People are so codified - it's sad.

I don't like dreams or reality. I like when dreams become reality because that is my life.

A woman can slip on a pair of embellished cage heels one night and a pair of streamlined, lightweight sneakers the next day. The beauty of modern luxury is the absence of rules.

Hip hop is the strongest form of protest there is, and it doesn't always have to be a violent protest. It can be romantic, also. When you listen to Kanye West's 'Street Lights' for example, there's romance, there's pain - you feel the essence. I get the same thing from Drake and 2 Chainz.

You cannot design shoes if you only think about fashion; it's too realistic. When I design, I dream.

Trends are dangerous; you will fail if you design for them. You cannot follow the work of others. I have my own DNA, my own formula. I always stay true to myself and to the brand.

I'm very proud of my love for Whitney Houston. She really changed my life. She made my life a better life. She was so beautiful in her love for God, her love for her family and her love for music. She truly loved her music. She could do everything! She had flawless rhythm, flawless pitch, flawless feeling, and flawless beauty.

And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.

No jealousy their dawn of love overcast, nor blasted were their wedded days with strife; each season looked delightful as it past, to the fond husband and the faithful wife.

How sweet the words of Truth, breathed from the lips of Love.

Grace is in garments, in movements, in manners; beauty in the nude, and in forms. This is true of bodies; but when we speak of feelings, beauty is in their spirituality, and grace in their moderation.

Superstition is the only religion of which base souls are capable of.

We must respect the past, and mistrust the present, if we wish to provide for the safety of the future.

A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.

Only choose in marriage a man whom you would choose as a friend if he were a woman.

Never cut what you can untie.

When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees.

You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.

You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some of it with you.

He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet.

The best remedy for a short temper is a long walk.

Space is to place as eternity is to time.

Imagination is the eye of the soul.

One who has imagination without learning has wings without feet.

Love and fear. Everything the father of a family says must inspire one or the other.