Verbatim

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'For years, only negative reports on farm diseases, monstrous murders, floods and landslides have been coming from our village.'
ZORAN BABIC, a councilman in the Serbian village of Zitiste, where a 10-ft. (3-m) bronze statue of Rocky Balboa, Sylvester Stallone's famous movie character, was revealed on Aug. 18

'Demonizing Chinese products or talking of the Chinese product threat, I think, is simply a new kind of trade protectionism.'
LI CHANGJIANG, director of China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, dismissing Western concerns over Chinese quality standards in comments aired in a new CCTV miniseries, Believe in Made in China, intended to promote local manufacturing

'False fbi accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the mafia.'
STEVEN SEAGAL, Hollywood action star, blaming an fbi investigation into charges that he had intimidated a reporter for "[scaring] studio heads and independent producers" and ruining his career

'I'm a myth, I'm Beowulf, I'm Grendel.'
KARL ROVE, mocking accusations that he secretly controlled President George W. Bush when he was White House adviser. He said Democrats made him a scapegoat

'Is it true that one day we'll go back to our homes?/ I sail in my dreams, I am dreaming of homes.'
OSAMA ABU KABIR, a Jordanian Guantánamo prisoner arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 for suspected Al Qaeda ties, in a poem titled "Is it true?" appearing in the new book Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak

'Nobody's going to elect me President of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen.'
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, New York City mayor, emphasizing that he will not run for President