When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world and you knew exactly who they were. It was us versus them and it was clear who them was. Today we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're there.
- US president-elect George W. Bush
Once I put a wig on, I didn't say an intelligent thing for four months.
- Sigourney Weaver, American actress, of the blond wig she wore for her latest role
I ask forgiveness for not justifying some hopes of those people who believed that at one stroke . . . we could overcome everything.
- Boris Yeltsin in his resignation speech
Ever since I met him, I've very much enjoyed chillin' out wid me bitch.
- Neil Hamilton, former Tory MP, on being interviewed by Ali G
It pains me to use the word perverted when discussing the homosexual act but that is what it is.
- Cardinal Thomas Winning, leader of Scotland's Roman Catholics
Friends of Britain be warned - the same could happen to you.
- Baroness Thatcher, after Gen Augusto Pinochet left Britain for Chile. Home Secretary Jack Straw had ruled that the general would not face extradition proceedings
As I was driving through a country district in Jamaica, a child hanging over his garden gate yelled: "White honky [pig]." I yelled back: "Black bastard." We laughed and waved at each other. Relax Britain!
- Judith Reay, Hants, England in a letter to the Daily Telegraph
I have had enough, I want nothing. My objective is to die . . . I'm only sorry I didn't do it decades ago and I'm eager to leave this cesspit in a coffin.
- Moors murderer Ian Brady, who has begun legal proceedings to win the right to starve himself to death
In fairness, the misses were by a Croatian and a Frenchman.
- Barry Davies, BBC sports commentator, in a reference to the two Arsenal players who missed penalties in the UEFA Cup Final, won by Galatasaray
If no one remembers who you were, you never existed.
- David Copeland, the London nail- bomber whose attacks against minorities and gays killed three and left scores injured
Today, Mexico enters the 21st century with its right foot forward.
- Mr Vicente Fox, leader of the National Action Party, which ousted the Institutional Revolutionary Party after 71 years of rule
My handbags did good service in cabinet and I am pleased they are still having the right effect.
- Lady Thatcher, responding to the news that the charity auction of her Ferregamo handbag had raised £100,000 for Breast Cancer Care
I think I learnt more going around the clubs of Barnsley than I learnt at Oxford about the human race in general.
- William Hague, leader of the Conservative Party in Britain
When you write about her, be kind to her.
- Bob Geldof, of his former wife, the late Paula Yates
Dear liberated Serbia . . . Democracy has happened.
- Opposition leader Dr Vojislav Kostunica, as President Milosevic was swept aside
It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it.
- George W. Bush
If we say somebody's carried the state, you can take that to the bank. Book it!
- Dan Rather, CBS news, as polling ended in the US presidential election
Some people thought I was a lame duck in 1995. I'll just keep quacking. I've got another 10 weeks to quack.
- President Clinton
Being Miss World will give me the opportunity to influence people's minds and that is the greatest power of all.
- Priyanka Chopra, Miss World
If the Elian Gonzalez case had been handled differently, Mr Gore would've been president.
- Ramon Saul Sanchez, the leader of a Cuban exile group in Miami