Verbatim

"Oblivious, in denial, dangerous."
NANCY PELOSI, U.S. House of Representatives minority leader, characterizing President George W. Bush's lack of awareness of the plight of people affected by Hurricane Katrina

"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
BARBARA BUSH, former First Lady, after meeting hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston

"Saddam deserves a death sentence 20 times a day because he tried to assassinate me 20 times."
JALAL TALABANI, Iraqi President and former Kurdish rebel leader, saying on state TV that ex-dictator Saddam Hussein has confessed in jail to ordering the killing of ethnic Kurds in the late 1980s. Saddam's lawyers later denied the claim

"They feel victimized in their own society; they feel victimized in the West ... and the Iraqi situation has not helped matters."
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary-General, discussing widespread anger among Muslim youth in a bbc interview

"No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun—for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won't hurt."
HUNTER S. THOMPSON, American journalist and author, in a note written four days before he killed himself in February

"I prefer it when she's a classy starlet. I don't really like her hard metal stuff, or when she doesn't brush her hair."
FRANCES COBAIN, 13-year-old daughter of singer Courtney Love, on her mother's fashion sense