Before Night Falls Quotes

Reinaldo Arenas: My name, for the moment, is Reinaldo Arenas.

Reinaldo's Mother: Reinaldo, would you be sad if I died?

Reinaldo Arenas: [narrating] Leonardo da Vinci was homosexual, so was Michelangelo, Socrates, Shakespeare, and almost every other figure that has formed what we have come to understand as beauty.

Reinaldo Arenas: Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers. Past buildings that you jump to avoid because they will fall on you. Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you. Past closed shops, closed markets, closed cinemas, closed parks, closed cafes. Sometimes showing dusty signs, justifications: "CLOSED FOR RENOVATION," "CLOSED FOR REPAIRS." What kind of repairs? When will these so-called renovations be finished? When at last will they begin? Closed... closed... closed... everything closed. I arrive, open the countless padlocks and run up the temporary stairs. There she is, waiting for me. I pull off the cover, and stare at her dusty, cold shape. I clean off the dust and caress her. With my hand, delicately, I wipe clean her back, her base and her sides. In front of her, I feel desperate and happy. I run my fingers over her keyboard and suddenly it all starts up. With a tinkling sound the music begins, little by little, then faster; now full speed. Walls, trees, streets, cathedrals, faces and beaches. Cells, mini- cells, huge cells. Starry nights, bare feet, pines, clouds. Hundreds, thousands, millions of parrots. A stool, a climbing plant, they all answer my call, all come to me. The walls recede, the roof vanishes, and you float quite naturally. You float uprooted, dragged off, lifted high. Transported, immortalized, saved. Thanks to that subtle, continuous rhythm, that music, that incessant tap-tap.

Reinaldo Arenas: The difference between the Communist system and the capitalist system is that when they give you a kick in the ass, in the Communist system you have to applaud, in the capitalist system, you can scream.

Reinaldo Arenas: As my mother smacked me, she cursed and yelled, "Maldito! Bad seed!" She shouted at the sky, "I want to get out of here." But I really wasn't sure that's what she wanted. But now standing over me she looked like a huge tree trunk. And if it didn't hurt so much, I'd get down on my knees, and ask her to smack me again, even harder. Then she became beautiful. How pretty she is in her skirt made out of a sack and the blouse she stole from her sister. I wanted to get up and beg her forgiveness. I wanted to say, "Mom, how pretty you are today. You look like one of those women that you can only see on Christmas cards," but I said nothing because of the knot in my throat.