'This Senate seat belongs to no one person, to no political party. This is the people's seat.'
SCOTT BROWN, Republican U.S. Senator-elect, after defeating Democratic candidate Martha Coakley in Massachusetts to win the seat long held by Ted Kennedy
'It's like asking us to go naked.'
OUMEIMA NACERI, a 19-year-old Muslim, on a French proposal that would bar women from wearing full-body, face-covering robes in public
'We can't get this halfway right or three-quarters of the way right.'
ARTHUR SULZBERGER JR., New York Times chairman and publisher, announcing that the newspaper will begin charging for frequent use of its website in 2011
'I am the Christ eternal.'
MEHMET ALI AGCA, in a statement, on being freed from a Turkish prison almost three decades after he shot and wounded Pope John Paul II
'The nearest I have come to it is going home and finding I don't have my door key.'
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD, fashion designer, on homelessness, the theme of her new menswear line
'It's the sign of a leader to step in when something's not working, have the guts to reverse it and not let the mistake linger.'
JEFF ZUCKER, CEO of NBC, on the network's decision to cancel The Jay Leno Show and allow Leno to reclaim The Tonight Show from Conan O'Brien
'I am perfect. I have all the attributes a woman wants.'
GOEL RATZON, an Israeli polygamist who was arrested Jan. 14 on suspicion of enslavement, sexual abuse and rape. Ratzon, who issued the statement during the filming of a 2009 documentary, lives with at least 17 women and has reputedly fathered as many as 89 children
TALKING HEADS
Holman W. Jenkins Jr.
Writing about banker bonuses in the Wall Street Journal:
"Taxpayers (a.k.a. voters) were acting in their own interests in bailing out the system. They weren't doing anybody a favor. Furthermore, government already stands to collect about 50% of any Wall Street cash bonuses in the form of income tax ... None of this means Americans don't have an ancient and abiding interest in subjecting bankers to scorn. A rough socialism is fundamental to civilization: The most beautiful virgin must be sacrificed to make the other virgins feel better."
--1/12/10
Roger Cohen
Assessing China's censorship policies in the New York Times:
"Beijing resists the very openness on which it depends. Openness for China is a means to an end--prosperity and development--but not a value. This is the Chinese paradox Google now appears bent on challenging. Google is right to do so ... Like the man who taps phones for a living and comes to believe phone tappers are everywhere, [China] has elevated suspicion to an obsession."
--1/14/10
Reihan Salam
Writing about the Taliban offensive in Afghanistan on the Daily Beast: