A selection of quotes from the past week compiled by Seán Archbold
They constitute a real threat to our economic well-being . . . The business of keeping the Provisional movement on side for political process cannot . . . blind us to the huge dangers of adopting a naive and uncritical approach to what they really stand for.
- The Attorney General, Mr Michael McDowell, talking about Sinn Féin
The worst horror movie you've ever seen? Imagine that 10 times worse. That is what I'm dealing with.
- Walker County coroner Mr Dewayne Wilson, after 85 bodies were found at a crematorium in Noble, Georgia. Its owner told police the facility had broken down years ago and he could not afford to repair it
The ethics were one of the things we took into consideration. But the economic considerations outweighed them.
- Mr Michael Brown, vice-president of the Washington Boxing and Wrestling Commission, on the granting to Mike Tyson of a licence to box
I want to assure you that any government I may lead will not make a similar mistake in the future.
- The Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, talking about the case of the late Brigid McCole
I don't know what they have to hide. But evidently they don't like some of us to be there.
- Mr Pierre Schori, head of the EU's election-observer mission to Zimbabwe
I feel superior here, the moral victor.
- Mr Slobodan Milosevic, speaking at his trial in The Hague
I cannot rid myself of the impression that in the first legal proceedings against former president Milosevic, there has been little legality but much shallow, superficial . . . and often forged quasi-history.
- The Yugoslav president, Mr Vojislav Kostunica
I have heard the speculation about returning to government . . . I'm not going to go back . . . even if I'm asked. I'm not going to into the front line because that would mean going back into the firing line.
- Former Northern Ireland secretary Mr Peter Mandelson
I had to walk home from 72nd and Madison in brand-new Manolo Blahniks.
- Downtown New York City resident on the trauma she experienced on September 11th. This explanation was given as her reason to need extra sessions of therapy, to be reimbursed by the Red Cross
It will stop the enlargement and some people, with whom I do not have any sympathy, will inevitably say here is a country that has done well out of membership of the EU over many years but is not prepared to extend those benefits to countries that have suffered from the division of Europe for 50 years.
The EU Commissioner for External Relations, Mr Chris Patten, warning against a second rejection of the Nice Treaty