Verbatim

"I looked around and saw my leg bleeding and my neighbor lying dead on the floor, torn apart. I saw a minibus full of children on fire."
AMIN DINAR, an Iraqi wounded in one of five suicide bombings in Basra last Wednesday that killed 73

"They just blew up innocent Iraqis."
GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. President, condemning the attacks and blaming al-Qaeda

"I'm pleased that these Japanese citizens were willing to put themselves at risk for a greater good, for a better purpose. And the Japanese people should be very proud that they have citizens like this."
COLIN POWELL, U.S. Secretary of State, saying he admired the Japanese who were taken hostage and later freed in Iraq

"They may have gone on their own, but they must consider how many people they caused trouble to."
YASUO FUKUDA, Japanese government spokesman, justifying the government's deliberations over whether to bill the freed hostages for their flights home

"I told the President the following: In our first meeting about three years ago, I accepted your request not to harm Arafat physically ... but I am released from that pledge."
ARIEL SHARON, Israeli Prime Minister, recounting what he told President Bush at their recent meeting in Washington regarding an earlier pledge not to harm Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

"It was an identical copy, an exact replica."
GIORGIO ARMANI, Italian designer, describing a fake Armani watch he was offered in Shanghai two weeks ago

"Yes, physical fitness."
RALPH NADER, presidential candidate, when asked if he saw any redeeming qualities in the Bush Administration