Verbatim

"Strengthen the U.S.-Japan alliance. That's our China policy." HISAHIKO OKAZAKI, foreign-policy expert and ally of Shinzo Abe, the man likely to be Japan's next Prime Minister, suggesting that an Abe administration would take a tough line on China

"I can never accept the claim that an Iraqi woman was raped while Saddam is President. How could I walk with my head up?" SADDAM HUSSEIN, ousted Iraqi dictator, denying allegations that Kurdish women were raped in prison during his regime, at the opening of his second trial for crimes against humanity

"It grieves me so much that we had not told the American people how tough and difficult this task would be." JOHN MCCAIN, Republican Senator from Arizona, criticizing the Bush Administration for "underestimating the size of the task" in Iraq and leading people to think it would be "some kind of day at the beach"

"We have a tendency to want to beat the system, in the elections, in sports accreditations, and even in civil-service exams." RICHARD GORDON, Philippine senator, on news that hundreds of applicants who took the Philippines' nursing-board exams had been leaked the test questions in advance

"You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair." RAY NAGIN, New Orleans Mayor, when asked about his city's stop-and-go post-Katrina reconstruction efforts

"When that Napster guy came up across, it was like 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.'" BOB DYLAN, singer-songwriter, in a Rolling Stone interview, in which he praises records and says CD sound quality is "atrocious" Dylan's new album, Modern Times, comes out this week