Verbatim: Feb. 20, 2006

"It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national-security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made." --PAUL PILLAR, former CIA official, accusing the Bush Administration of cherry-picking intelligence to justify going to war, in the upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs

"For them to now claim that we didn't have awareness of it, I think, is just baloney." --MICHAEL BROWN, former FEMA director, after evidence surfaced that the White House knew the extent of Hurricane Katrina damage a day earlier than officials had claimed

"It may be your lucky day. I've lost a page." --GEORGE H.W. BUSH, former U.S. President, during his remarks at Coretta Scott King's funeral, which lasted six hours

"It is fiction. But it has the absolute ring of truth." --LARRY NATION, spokesman for the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, which awarded its annual journalist award to Michael Crichton, whose latest novel, State of Fear, dismisses global warming as a conspiracy

"I thought maybe a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts would complete this transaction." --AL MICHAELS, Monday Night Football commentator, on ABC's parent company, Walt Disney Co., giving him to NBC Universal, in exchange for the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a character Walt Disney created in 1927 before he left Universal Pictures

"The more lawyers there are, the more people are out there to encourage others not to go to law school." --DAVID E. KELLEY, creator of the ABC drama Boston Legal and himself a lawyer, on the 9.5% drop in law-school applications so far this year

"It's Matthew McConaughey meets Orlando Bloom." --PHILLIP BLOCH, celebrity dresser whose redesign of Mattel's Ken doll includes a hipper wardrobe, softer mouth and sharper jawline

Sources: Washington Post; CNN; New York Times (2); Chicago Tribune; New York Times (2)