This is not just the trial of the century, but the most important trial in the history of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence.

- Arlen Specter, a Republican, on Mr Clinton's impeachment trial

I was slightly stunned for a minute, then I realised I should answer the question. I said "Yes, yes please."

- Sophie Rhys-Jones describing her reaction when Prince Edward proposed to her

Meeting him, leaving him and losing him have been three of the most important things in my life. His death cut me off at the knees for a while. Even now, I hear a particular song and it crushes me for a moment.

- Cher, on her late husband Sonny Bono

It is clearly worthwhile for every forward-thinking employer to bring back those "concentration enhancement operatives" formerly known as tea ladies.

- Daily Telegraph editorial, on research that shows a cup of tea improves concentration and makes people better at doing two things at once

Jerry was the hardest puncher there ever was. He had a heart bigger than a Rottweiler.

- Joey Orbillo, on his defeat in 1966 by Jerry Quarry, the American heavyweight boxer of great bravery, who has died

Without wishing to sound facetious, I find the monosyllabic illiteracy of the Pop Culture and the polysyllabic semi-literacy of the New University Jargon almost equally objectionable.

- Brian Fallon, former chief critic of The Irish Times

I was criticising the way in which the whole society has accepted this situation without apparently any comment. Here was a public figure, a role figure, behaving in a way which was probably a little foreign to our thinking.

- The editor of the Church of Ireland Gazette, Canon Cecil Cooper, in a defence of the editorial which criticised the Taoiseach for taking his partner with him on State visits

We have a fair idea who did it; we probably know about half a dozen who were involved. We are trying to work out their actual roles. The problem is producing a case that convicts them. It's one thing to know who did it and another to produce evidence to put them away.

- The head of the team hunting the Omagh bombers, Det Chief Supt Eric Anderson

The loyalist people of Northern Ireland haven't gone away, you know.

DUP Assembly member, the Rev William McCrea

I . . . take the view that the job of press secretary becomes extremely difficult if the press secretary, and not the department he serves, becomes the story and the subject of excessive attention.

- Charlie Whelan, press secretary to Gordon Brown, who is the third political victim in the Peter Mandelson "home loan" affair

Thabo Mbeki is a highly talented young man . . . He has been trained. When I was in jail fighting with warders with bare fists, he was meeting heads of state.

- President Mandela, on his chosen successor

Pornography is about degrading women, and hatred and power over them.

- Dorothy Morrissey of the Limerick Rape Crisis Centre

The only thing he's resigned to is a poxy weekend.

- Nottingham Forest assistant Micky Adams, after local radio prematurely reported Dave Bassett had gone

I am going right at him and I expect him to go down cold. I expect him to die.

- Boxer Mike Tyson on his fight this month with Francois Botha