Verbatim

'Whether it's torture by anybody else's definition, for me it would be torture.' MIKE MCCONNELL, director of national intelligence, on waterboarding. He said certain interrogation techniques saved "tons" of lives

'There was blood on the floor all the way to the kitchen. There was a lot of blood in the lobby. There were empty shell casings outside.' SUZANNE GRIFFIN, a Seattle resident, on suicide attacks that killed six people in Kabul's upscale Serena Hotel on Jan. 14. Griffin was in the hotel gym's locker room when the violence broke out

'The heart is a beautiful organ, and it's not one that I thought I'd ever be able to build in a dish.' DORIS A. TAYLOR, head of a University of Minnesota research team, on its ability to create a beating rat heart in the lab

'If Kofi Annan is coming, he is not coming at our invitation.' JOHN MICHUKI, Kenyan government minister, rejecting international efforts to aid the country's electoral crisis

'I was drinking bourbon on the rocks. It was great. This huge cheer went up.' GLENN CLOSE, after learning that she'd won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Drama, at a bar in New York City. The traditional ceremony was replaced with a speedy news conference because of the ongoing writers' strike

'We should not ask who will outdo whom.' WEN JIABAO, Chinese Premier, on China and India's joint pledge to increase military ties and expand trade to $60 billion by 2010

MORE OF THE BEST QUOTES AT TIME.COM For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: Reuters; AP; New York Times; AFP; AP; BBC