15 Quotes by Arturo O'Farrill

Jazz and Cuba are inexorably tied together; it's not a branch from a tree. Latin music is part of the root of jazz.

I won't give up swimming, even if it kills me. I love the rhythm of it.

I've always thought of music as profound spirituality because you can use that music and that spirituality for personal gain or for the good of the world, the good of humanity, and for the good of your people.

Too many spend too much time trying to live in a fixed point, when our lives are an unfolding journey. Taking on new challenges is how we fix the world.

I made one rule for myself, and I really try to live it: Play music you love, with people you love, for people you love. If I can't be that kind of musician, I'll drive a cab.

A lot of groups spend their whole cultural and aesthetic identity trying to move away from Africa, which I think is a mistake. One of the reasons I love Cuba and cultures like that is because they're not trying to move away from their African roots, they're trying to embrace them. That's part of the culture.

Ray Santos is one of my personal heroes. I model my life on people like him.

Culture is a fluid, ongoing process. People tend to look at culture in a fixed time but it's constantly moving and evolving, as is the conversation between Americans and Cubans.

I grew up in an environment with virtually no Hispanics where you see only people in your culture in custodial jobs. I had a messed up image of what we bring to this nation. My father was known as a pioneering figure in Cuban music, but I still associated him with everything that was negative in my neighborhood. I could not have been more mistaken.