The week in quotes.
"Ring those people and get a handle on it, will you? Bring in all those f***ers."- Taoiseach Brian Cowen speaking to Tánaiste Mary Coughlan at the end of Leader's Questions in the Dáil. The words were inadvertently picked up by microphones.
"The decision is noted. We are disappointed. We have nothing to add at this time."- A Waterford Wedgwood spokesman as the Government rejects a request from the group for State guarantees over loans worth up to €39 million.
"He has agreed to allow all aid workers regardless of nationalities."- United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-Moon emerges from talks with Gen Than Shwe of the Burmese junta to announce that the government there has agreed to allow aid workers help residents of the storm-ravaged Irrawaddy delta.
"Those 20 envelopes won't shake up German democracy."- A spokesman for Deutsche Post after stamps depicting Nazi leader Rudolf Hess are accidentally issued.
"I appreciate beauty and I go a little bit beyond appreciating the beauty of a car only to the point of what I feel is an expression of love."- Englishman Edward Smith, who claims to have "slept with" more than 1,000 cars. His current girlfriend is a Volkswagen Beetle named Vanilla.
"They were unaware of it while they were on the plane. They didn't hear about it until afterwards, from the media."- Ruti Winterstein, a spokesman for former UK prime minster Tony Blair. Two Israeli fighter aircraft threatened to shoot down a private jet transporting Blair, now a Middle East peace envoy, and his party after coming under the misapprehension that the aircraft was staging a potential terrorist attack.
"It was painful, and it was a big struggle, and I didn't understand it."- Madonna reflects on the media uproar over her adoption of a Malawi infant.
"Even John Terry slipping as he took the penalty might have been fate. Who knows?"- Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson as his side overcome fellow UK team Chelsea in the Champions' League after Chelsea's John Terry misses a penalty.