Verbatim

'I'm not interested in waiting months for a sanctions regime to be in place. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks.'

BARACK OBAMA, calling for tougher U.N. measures against Iran, during a press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy

'We make our food very similar to cocaine now.'

GENE-JACK WANG, a medical doctor with a Department of Energy lab, on a study confirming that fatty foods may be addictive

'The perception that the British government was a subservient "poodle" to the U.S. ... is widespread.'

THE U.K.'S HOUSE OF COMMONS FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, referring to Britain's support of America's Iraq policy in a report calling for a reconsideration of the U.K.-U.S. relationship

'I feel insulted for being offered something which does not exist.'

EGEMEN BAGIS, Turkey's Minister for European Union Affairs, responding to the suggestion that Turkey should have a "privileged partnership" with the E.U. rather than full membership

'If limos, chartered aircraft and sex clubs are where they think their donors' money should be spent, who are we to judge?'

BRAD WOODHOUSE, Democratic Party spokesman, after news broke that GOP expenditures filed with the Federal Election Commission included nearly $2,000 at the bondage-themed nightclub Voyeur

'On any measure, this is a tough sentence.'

STEPHEN SMITH, Australian Foreign Minister, after Chinese officials sentenced a Rio Tinto executive to 10 years in prison for bribery and stealing business secrets

'Of all the sucky movies, mine is the suckiest.'

J.D. SHAPIRO, screenwriter on Battlefield Earth, which was recently dubbed worst movie of the decade

TALKING HEADS

Charles Krauthammer

Writing in the Washington Post that the new health care plan will increase U.S. debt and necessitate a national sales tax as high as those found in European nations:

"American liberals have long complained that ours is the only advanced industrial country without universal health care. Well, now we shall have it. And as we approach European levels of entitlements, we will need European levels of taxation."

--3/26/10

Gabriel Thompson

Urging immigration supporters to keep pushing the issue, despite the Obama Administration's seeming eagerness to ignore it, in the Nation:

"Beyond specific policy improvements, progressives need to push back against language in the debate that tends to paint undocumented immigrants as guilty of anything but attempting to improve their lot. As [Senator Lindsey] Graham and [Senator Charles] Schumer wrote ... undocumented immigrants 'would be required to admit they broke the law and to pay their debt to society.' There's another case to be made: we owe a debt to them."

--3/25/10

Sinead O'Connor

Irish singer, on the Catholic abuse scandal, in the Washington Post: