Verbatim

'I cannot guarantee that there will not be a coup in 2008, just like I cannot rule out a natural disaster.'

GENERAL BOONRAWD SOMTAS, Thai Defense Minister, after deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's party won a key election on Dec. 23

'It's not our first choice, but it's a necessary part of the equation. There are consequences for breaking the law.'

JONATHAN LAMY, spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), on a federal case the industry is bringing against a man who kept a collection of 2,000 songs on his personal computer. The RIAA is arguing that it was illegal for him to transfer music from legally purchased CDs onto his computer

'We did the essay, and that's what we did to win ... We did whatever we could to win.'

PRISCILLA CEBALLOS, who in order to win Hannah Montana concert tickets helped her 6-year-old daughter compose a fake essay about the girl's father dying in Iraq. The tickets were revoked

'I have no illusions about the FARC, but it looks like they are a peasant army fighting for a decent living.'

OLIVER STONE, Hollywood director, who has joined a mission led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to retrieve three hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, the nation's largest guerrilla army

'It's been a black eye for our town, a stigma.'

SCOTT WALKER, mayor of Reeves, La., which will change its phone prefix from 666 so that residents won't have a number that is associated in Christianity with the devil

'I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press, and that applies to you, unfortunately. Even though I think you're cute.'

CHELSEA CLINTON, to a 9-year-old reporter for Scholastic News, during presidential campaigning in Iowa