This Week They Said

Outside Europe, you have nothing. What would you be outside Europe? But you are not grateful for that.

Outside Europe, you have nothing. What would you be outside Europe? But you are not grateful for that.

- Romano Prodi, European Commission President, talking about Ireland

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

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I can understand his anguish. I can understand the emotions involved.

- George W. Bush, of Al Gore

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

I have no idea why these men were stopped. If they were from Egypt, they probably wouldn't have been stopped because the Government wants them to take our beef. - Mr David Christie, solicitor for the seven Pakistani businessmen detained in Mountjoy prison and subsequently freed by the High Court

It's like a piece of paper. I roll it up and throw it in the bin.

- Mr Rasheed Akhtar Niazi, one of the Pakistani businessmen, asked what lasting effect the ordeal would have on him

The thrust of the reforms that we wanted is being followed and Northern Ireland, with the support I hope of the whole community, will get the police service it deserves.

- Mr Chris Patten, chairman of the commission that reported on the future of policing

The unfortunate reality that we must now face is that in Peter Mandelson we have a peace wrecker rather than a peacemaker.

- Mr Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein

His influence was seminal and at the core of thinking and of political change.

- The North's deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, of Mr John Hume, who has resigned his Assembly seat

I thought it was the best thing to do for me and my children. Of course, the money had something to do with it.

- Paula Jones, the woman who accused President Clinton of sexual harassment, explaining her decision to appear nude in Penthouse

Please give me your e-mail address.

- Kim Jong-Il, North Korean leader, to US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, after she told him to "pick up the phone anytime"

Other groups which declared a dispute or took direct action were brought quietly into talks. Teachers are looking for the same treatment.

- ASTI secretary Charlie Lennon, during Tuesday's teachers' protest

A lot of people who have been attacked don't know their rights. I know mine and I'm letting people know that this has been going on and on.

- Nasser Diaby, chairman of the African Refugee Network, who was attacked and racially abused on Parnell St, Dublin

Not only is this find older than any other previously known, it is also in a more advanced stage of evolution.

- Martin Pickford, palaeontologist, talking about the discovery of a six-million-year-old ancestor of man in Kenya

There was no arguing, no malicious feud. If I was marrying someone of lesser fortunes who was 25 years younger, I'd be doing exactly the same thing.

- Catherine Zeta Jones, of her pre-nuptial agreement with Michael Douglas

I want to congratulate you on choosing me, which is something the British Academy has annually ignored.

- The actor Richard Harris, on being awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European Film Academy