Verbatim: Jun. 25, 2007

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'Who dumped this catfish in my lap?' LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, President of Brazil, expressing annoyance upon learning that the nation's environmental agency rejected a proposed $11 billion hydroelectric project on the Amazon River

'If it was up to me, I would close Guantánamo not tomorrow but this afternoon.' COLIN POWELL, former U.S. Secretary of State, calling for the immediate closure of the controversial military prison

'I responded to his comment with my right hand.' CHARLES BISHOP, Alabama state senator, after punching senator Lowell Barron in the head during an argument in the legislative chamber

'What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they "disappeared"?' JOANNE MARINER, of Human Rights Watch, on the list of 39 terrorism suspects the group believes are being secretly imprisoned by U.S. authorities

'I am having the experience two times in my life of doing something that makes New Jersey fashionable. What are the odds on that?' STEVIE VAN ZANDT, on being in the E Street Band and The Sopranos

'Sometimes I'm not poetic enough to describe what it's like to be in the presence of the Holy Father. It is a moving experience.' PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, before meeting Pope Benedict XVI for the first time

Sources: New York Times; AP (3); New York Times; AP