Verbatim: Jul. 25, 2005

"I want to put to rest the speculation and unfounded rumors of my imminent retirement. I am not about to announce my retirement."

WILLIAM REHNQUIST, Chief Justice of the U.S. supreme court, in a statement following weeks of rumors that he would step down because of thyroid cancer

"All I can say is, Shucks."

WAYNE HALE of NASA, on the scrubbed launch of the space shuttle Discovery because of a faulty fuel-tank sensor

"If I'm ever released, I'd do the same again. Exactly the same."

MOHAMMED BOUYERI, a Muslim extremist, expressing no remorse at his trial for the slaying of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh

"I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman is in charge in Washington."

HILLARY CLINTON, New York Senator, saying President Bush's attitude on tough issues reminds her of the "What, me worry?" character

"It is good, that you enlighten people about Harry Potter, because those are subtle seductions, which act unnoticed and [can] deeply distort Christianity in the soul, before it can grow properly."

JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER, in a newly disclosed letter written in 2003, before he became Pope, in response to a German critic of the Harry Potter books

"I was delighted to finish with a 72, the best round I've shot this year. I've played well, and I've missed the cut by three shots. Then you know it's time to leave."

JACK NICKLAUS, after his final round at the British Open, which he says is the last major golf tournament he will play

"From all I have seen and heard, the Dukes movie is a sleazy insult to all of us who have cared about the Dukes of Hazzard for so long."

BEN JONES, former Congressman and actor who played Cooter on the Dukes of Hazzard, objecting on his website to the reported profanity and sexual content in the movie remake of the TV series

Sources: AP (2); New YorkTimes; AP; BBC; CNN; AP