Verbatim

“Abu Mazen is faced with a challenge of reconciling the irreconcilable.”
ZIAD ABU AMR,
Palestinian legislator, on Mahmoud Abbas (AKA Abu Mazen), the new Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority

“They don’t want change, but change is inevitable.”
AUNG SAN SUU KYI,
Burmese Nobel laureate, criticizing the slow pace of reform talks with the country’s ruling military junta

“We will find them.”
GEORGE W. BUSH,
U.S. President, on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

“We’re flying blind on this.”
WALTER P. LANG,
former U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency specialist in Middle Eastern affairs, on the rebuilding process in Iraq

“If the government can’t figure out how to handle this, how are we peasants going to protect ourselves?”
SHI CHUANQUAN,
a 39-year-old migrant worker in Beijing, on the spread of SARS

“The damage to the dissidents is enormous. I don’t know how they will recover now.”
AN UNNAMED EUROPEAN AMBASSADOR TO CUBA,
on the prison sentences handed out to a slate of anti-Castro dissidents

“They should not do anything that will send Nigeria into another problem of darkness.”
JERRY GANA,
Nigerian information minister, on accusations from the opposition party that the recent presidential election was rigged