Author

I'd never seen Rigondeaux's face without it being obscured by headgear or a photograph of Fidel he was holding up after winning a tournament. Finally I saw him, only to recognize the saddest face I'd ever seen in Cuba.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

Cuban athletes represent the most expensive human cargo on earth. They are sitting on over a billion dollars of human capital if these boxers and baseball players would come over to any other field or ring in the world and begin to ply their trade.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

He's the best practitioner I've ever seen of the Cuban style. But I think that what Rigondeaux sees as an immaculate performance has no corollary to what fans see as a perfect performance. In his mind, to make an opponent look terrible who has been lauded as exciting or favored against him gives him satisfaction.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

You can't learn to take a punch. Whether you have a glass chin or you don't, the only way of finding out is having it land.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

As far as cities go, Havana is a festering treasure chest, a primary color.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

I have a dirty little habit of distilling every city I've ever visited into the historical person I'd have most wanted to meet and share a cigarette with.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

Exploring Castro's pawns in Cuba and exposing anything negative also makes you a pawn to all his enemies 90 miles away. Both sides don't have much of a track record for nuance of opinion.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

Bullfighting is every bit as ghoulish and savage as its critics warn, but it is equally as powerful and moving as its supporters insist. Perhaps the most vexing aspect about it is that neither group is wrong: they are both telling the truth.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

In film or on stage, in reflecting life through art, an actor has a second take or another day with his or her performance if something goes wrong. Bullfighters are spies crossing into enemy lines. Any mistake, no matter how minor or trivial, is potentially fatal.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

I have no arguments to defend how brutal and disturbing a ritual the corrida is. Like all tragedies, no matter the beauty created, there are no happy endings. If it is indeed an art form, bullfighting is the most disturbing I have ever witnessed.

From Brin-Jonathan Butler

Brin-Jonathan Butler

Notable Quotes

Authors with Similar Views

Fidel Castro

Edgar Ramirez

Euzhan Palcy

George Foreman

Guillermo Cabrera Infante

Authors with Opposing Views

Jennine Capó Crucet

Alvaro Enrigue

Elvis Mitchell

Jesse Ventura

Paz Vega