Verbatim

• Share

"The President is not a statistician."
Scott McClellan, White House press secretary, after the George W. Bush Administration backed away from an earlier forecast that the economy would gain 2.6 million jobs this year

"The people of Afghanistan must not participate in the election ... If they do, they will come under Taliban attack."
Mullah Dadullah, a Taliban leader thought to be hiding in Afghanistan, warning Afghans against participating in the presidential elections expected in June

"They're like the Taliban. They're the vegetarian Taliban."
Veronica Atkins, widow of American high-protein diet doctor Robert Atkins, after a provegetarian physicians' group obtained her husband's medical records and released them to the press

"I would have voted if I knew and trusted the candidates."
Shirin Ebadi, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, criticizing the government's barring of more than 2,000 candidates from parliamentary elections

"I've heard it before, but it bears repeating: we're electing a President, not a priest. "
Monica Lewinsky, former White House intern, on an unsubstantiated rumor that Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had an extramarital affair

"We are witnessing the coup d'état machine in motion."
Yvon Neptune, Prime Minister of Haiti, urging international help to quell an uprising against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide

"They haven't eaten a Westerner for 40 years."
Reg Barker, travel guide for a competition by British magazine Zoo Weekly. The winner will be sent with Barker to Papua New Guinea to live for two weeks with a tribe of cannibals