Quotes of the Day

"This isn't going to be some kind of 'We're like them, they're like us, wishy-washy, mealymouth, you-can't-tell-the-difference' deal."
JOHN KERRY, front runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, on the election campaign against U.S. President George W. Bush

"Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue."
GEORGE W. BUSH, starting his re-election campaign after Senator Kerry's big primary wins on Super Tuesday

"Holding hands won't make the problems go away."
LIEN CHAN, Taiwan presidential candidate, criticizing President Chen Shui-bian for organizing a 500-km human chain to protest China's missiles aimed at Taiwan

"A few people always like going overseas to ask for help. Clowns!"
AN MIN, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, deriding three Hong Kong legislators for attending a U.S. Senate hearing on democracy in Hong Kong and meeting with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell

"It's not a happy assignment—will be excoriated."
HARRY BLACKMUN, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice, in a memo from his unsealed private papers describing the task of writing the court's opinion in Roe v. Wade, the 1972 abortion case

"This program is a threat to Islam. This is entertainment for animals."
SHAHNAZ RABI'I, 34-year-old Bahraini teacher, criticizing an Arab version of Big Brother, which had six men and six women cohabiting in a house—with a coed lounge, a prayer room and segregated bedrooms—for a week before it was taken off the air

"Get on the damn elevator! Fly on the damn plane! Calculate the odds of being harmed by a terrorist! It's still about as likely as being swept out to sea by a tidal wave!"
JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona Senator, in his new book, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life

• Quotes of the week