Verbatim

'I don't know anything about cars.' EDWARD WHITACRE JR., the newly appointed chairman of GM, who added that "a business is a business, and I think I can learn"

'A Boy Scout shooting cans at the county dump has got more military training than these guys.' GEORGE CLARKE, a lawyer for Anwar Hassan, one of 17 Uighurs who languished for three years at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility before the island nation of Palau agreed to temporarily resettle the Chinese Muslim group

'Good God, do not close this abortion clinic for this reason.' TROY NEWMAN, leader of the antiabortion group Operation Rescue, lamenting plans to shutter Dr. George Tiller's clinic because of Tiller's murder rather than ideological opposition to the practice

'Do you take a shower in a jacket and tie?' SILVIO BERLUSCONI, Italian Prime Minister, after a radio host questioned him about photos that surfaced of topless women sunbathing at Berlusconi's Sardinia estate

'When a person has in his mind to come to die, nobody can stop him.' JAMIL KHARWAR, spokesman for the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar, Pakistan, where at least 16 people died in a June 9 suicide bombing

'Oh, wow. That's a blessing.' BELINDA JENKINS, a New Orleans resident, reacting to news that Hurricane Katrina victims will be allowed to buy their temporary trailers for $5 or less

'I take the ones I can afford and then trust in the Lord.' ROBERT BROWN, a 60-year-old North Carolina native who suffers from heart disease and emphysema, on coping with the rising cost of prescription drugs

Back & Forth:

Iran

'We are up against a person who says black is white and four times four equals five. He looks into the camera and lies with self-confidence.'

MIR-HOSSEIN MOUSAVI, Iranian presidential candidate, accusing incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of lying about the state of Iran's economy

'No one has the right to insult the President.'

AHMADINEJAD, saying Mousavi and other rivals should be imprisoned for their remarks

Don't Ask, Don't Tell

'The Court of Appeals properly upheld the statute.'

Solicitor General ELENA KAGAN, defending the Obama Administration's position that the U.S. Supreme Court should not review the Pentagon's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy governing openly gay soldiers in the military

'He's a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar.'

JAMES PIETRANGELO II, a former Army officer who was dismissed for being openly gay, blasting President Obama for failing to uphold his campaign pledge to overturn the policy

LEXICON

Widow penalty n.--The practice of denying immigrants U.S. residency if their American spouses die during the citizenship-application process

USAGE: "The Department [of Homeland Security] said it is suspending for two years enforcement of the so-called widow penalty that has triggered several lawsuits." --AP, June 10, 2009

For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: Bloomberg; NPR; New York Times; Daily Telegraph; CNN; New York Times (2)