- N -
- My ambition is to do a good job. I never plan anything.
Ilie Nastase, former professional tennis player, running for mayor of Bucharest, Romania, 1996
- This is the only place in the world where you can do this. The little guy who dosen't
have a lot of money can still come here and start up a campain. We give the same courtesy
to the Hemp Lady as to Bob Dole.
New Hampshire Secretary of State, where anyone with $1,000 can enter the Presidential
Primary Election, 1995
- There'll never be another ewe? Don't count on it!
News Headline, after Scottish scientists clone a sheep, 1997
- My generation, faced as it grew with a choice between religious belief and existential despair, chose
marijuana. Now we are in our Cabernet stage.
Peggy Noonan, speech writer for presidents Reagan and Bush, 1996
- U.S. Government Standard Bathroom Malodor.
name of one of several"Non-lethal" crowd dispersal agents, being developed for U.S. law enforcement/military applications, as reported in Time, July 2002
- I'm disappointed, but I'm not going to run around like Dennis Rodman and head-butt somebody.
Greg Norman, Australian professional golfer, after losing the Masters tournament, 1996
- I'm like John Wayne. I only play good guys.
Oliver North, retired US marine colonel, describing his cameo role on a TV series, 1995
- The west wasn't won on salad.
(North Dakota Beef Council), billboard advertisement, 1990
- In America, unfortunately, we regulate by tombstones.
NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) Official, on the lack of regulations requiring automatic safety
devices, after a fatal los angeles train crash was attributed to operator error, 15Sep2008 in the Sun-Sentinel
- O -
- I think out third child is this campaign.
Michelle Obama, wife of presidential nominee Barack Obama, when asked if she were considering having another child, 22Sept08, in Time
- I think she did good.
Sasha Obama, age 7, on her mother Michelle Obama's speech before the Democratic National Convention, 26Aug2008
- Twenty-two years of tofu is a lot of time.
Paul Obis, creator of Vegetarian Times, on his decision to start eating meat, 1997
- I regret calling my wife 'huge'. What I meant to say was that there are specific areas of my wife that are larger than normal and growing every day. All other portions of my wife are quite petite. I apologize and will be coming home with flowers.
Jerry O'Connel, regarding his pregnant wife, model/actress Rebecca Romijn, 14Sep2008 in Time
- P -
- There's some trophy value to having artists of this magnitude.
Don Passmani, lawyer for Janet Jackson, after his client signed an
$80 million contract with Virgin Records, 1996
- If elected, I will win.
Pat Paulsen, US comedian, commenting on his fifth, and final, presidential campaign, 1996
- You don't need any brains to listen to music.
Luciano Pavarotti, opera singer, 1994
- I've been subjected -- I think that's the word -- to that music for years by my children.
I.M. Pei, architect for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, on Rock
and Roll, 1995
- She probably got mad at me for not sending her a card thanking her for the gift.
Kenneth F. Perkins, of Lebanon, Indianna, on receiving a package postmarked December 13th, 1945, from a woman he was then dating, found when the Indianapolis court house was renovated, August 2002
- One reason we’re in this situation is this is a supersize society — we tend to equate small with insignificant,” Berenbaum said. “I’m sorry but that’s not true in biology. You have to be small to get into the flower and deliver the pollen. Without that critical act, there’s no fruit. And no technology has been invented that equals, much less surpasses, insect pollinators. It’s not the staples, If you can imagine eating a bowl of oatmeal every day with no fruit on it, that’s what it would be like.
Jeff Pettis of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service on the sudden dissappearance of large numbers of the honeybees used to pollinate fruit and nut crops, Reuters, April 2007
- Is that your final answer?
Regis Philbin, game show host, 2000
- When you're 25, you can eat hamburgers and pizza and drink beer and stay out all night and come out the next day and drink a couple cups of coffee and just play. If I did that today, my heart would stop and I'd need a stretcher and an IV.
Mike Piazza, 27 year old catcher for the New York Mets, NYT Online Edition, Nov 5th, 2005
- Musically, we are more talented than any Bob Dylan. Musically, we
are more talented than Paul McCartney...I'm the new Elvis.
Robert Pilatus, "singer" in the musical group Milli Vanilli,
1990
- I respect everyone. I even respect journalists.
Alexander "the Russian Rocket" Popov, double-gold medallist in swimming, responding politely to inane comments by an NBC interviewer, Atlanta Olympics, 1996.
- We have found an environment that is potentially suitable for living organisms.
Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute, discussing a moon of Saturn, NYT Online Edition, March 9th, 2006
- I don't want to describe the hate mail we've gotten.
Alma Powell, Colin's wife, on why she was fearful of her husband running for president - from an interview in the Ladies Home Journal, 1996
- Think hard about it: I'm running out of demons. I'm running out of villians. I'm down to Castro and Kim Il Sung.
Colin Powell, US general and chairman of joint chiefs of staff, 1991
- Q -
- Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in
the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here.
Dan Quayle, IN senator and US vice president, during a speech
in Hawaii, 1989
- What a waste it is to lose one's mind--or not to have a mind. How
true that is.
Dan Quayle, IN senator and US vice president, 1989
- I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.
Dan Quayle, former US Vice President, on elections in the year 2000 (when Clinton would not be eligible to run), 1998.
- If Thomas Jefferson had heard us, he probably would have said, 'We shouldn't have free speech.'
Robin Quivers, co-host of the Howard Stern radio show, 1996
- R -
- Enough of blood and tears. Enough!
Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, 1994
- What I say or do here won't matter much, nor should it.
Dan Rather,journalist, University of Texas, Austin
Graduation, 1995
- I'll trust you to make sure that doesn't happen.
Dan Rather,journalist, to the pilot of a deep sea submersible, upon finding out what would happen
if the craft sprung a leak while submerged, 1996
- While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
Ronald Reagan,US president, 1992
- I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work.
Ronald Reagan,US president, on a speaking tour of Japan, 1989
- I don't want to seem braggadocious, but people keep telling me it's the most
famous house in the country, after the White House.
Victor Recchia, whose New jesrsey home was used as the setting for The Sopranos
television series, August 2002, in the NY Times
- Well, does he still have his fingernails?
Bill Richardson, US Congressman, and nominee for UN Representative, making inquiries while negotiating the release of a US Army pilot from North Korea, in Time, 1996.
- I heard a snap and I started spinning and I didn't know why. I didn't know what to do to fix it. I didn't know how to make it stop. At the end I said, 'I'm going to die. I'm going to hit the ground. I'm going to die. I don't remember hitting the ground. I don't remember the impact or anything that came with it. I went into the first surgery where they cut me from ear to ear and they cut my face down and they took out all the fractured egg-shelled bones and put in steel plates.
Shayna Richardson, Skydiver from Joplin Missouri, on the effects of surviving a 50 MPH skydiving impact with a parking lot, December 13th, 2005
- During the blizzard we had three feet of snow - and the pigs are only 18
inches tall. We had to dig tunnels so they could get out.
Dale Riffle, who, along with Jim Brewer, maintains a haven for unwanted
Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pigs in West Virginia, 1996
- Less and grayer hair.
Cal Ripkin Jr.,baseball player, describing how he has changed
over the course of his consecutive games record, 1996
- You are the weakest link. Goodbye.
Anne Robinson, game show host, 2001
- Losing him is like losing 12 people because he absolutely filled up any room he was in.
Chris Rock, American Commedian, on the death of fellow commedian and actor Bernie Mac, 11Aug2008
- I've never looked forward to a birthday like I'm looking forward to
my new daughter's birthday, because two days
after that is when I can apply for reinstatement.
Pete Rose, baseball player, manager and prison inmate, 1989
- Imagine what Disney could do with this material. There could be a parade...
with at least one real prince and one real princess on hand.
John Rothchild, news commentator, proposing a sale of Windsor
Castle to Disney to improve the royal family's public image, 1996
- We don't see eye to eye, but we have a common interest: your money.
Johnny Rotten, stage name of Johnny Lydon, announcing the rationale for a reunion tour of the Sex Pistols, 1996
- It's funny. Now they get it. I guess it's not the music for the overpriveliged.
Johnny Rotten, stage name of Johnny Lydon, punk musician, during a PBS retrospective, 1995
- Reports that say something hasn’t happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns — there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns — that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don’t know we don’t know.
Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Defense Secretary, in a Press Briefing on the War in Iraq, December 1st, 2003
- Believe me when I say that Bill Clinton's second term will be good for business. My business.
Mark Russell, Political satirist, composer, performer, Nov 6 1996
- S -
- They ought to put it back in the ground.
Scientist, on the discovery of a nearly complete early hominid skull in Dmanisi, Republic of Georgia, which does not fit into any current evolutionary theory. August 2002
- Delighted visitors are sucking up the asphalt smoke.
Scientist, observing visitors to an eruption of Mount Kilauea in Hawaii, as hot lava set the road on fire, July 2002
- Parents like the idea of kids, they just don't like their kids.
Morley Saefer, Journalist, on Politically Incorrect, 1995
- Kids' views are often just as valid as the teachers'. The best teachers are the ones that know that.
Morley Saefer, Journalist, on Politically Incorrect, 1995
- This one could be him,or this one, or this. The truth is, they are all my father. That is how I feel.
Juliana Sanchez, Age 77, searching for her father's remains in a mass grave near Malaga, Spain, from the Spanish Civil War, 70 years ago, Associated Press Article, Oct 28th, 2007.
- Some companies seem to figure no one is watching, so they can get away with it.
Stephen Schondelmeyer, of the University of Minnesota, on price increases of 100% to 1000% by drug manufacturers, 08Aug2008
- Sure, luck means a lot in football. Not having a good quarterback is bad luck.
Don Schula, Miami Dolphins Football Coach, describing an opposing team, 1994
- He is neither a strategist nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general. Other than that he's a great military man.
Norman Schwartzkopf, US general and gulf war commander, describing Saddam Hussein of Iraq, 1991
- We are kind of shocked they didn't beat us.
Ahmad Salah, Egyptian Protestor, after police allowed chanting of anti-government slogans on election day, Septermber 8th, 2005
- In Japan, we don't have family doctors. People choose a doctor according to the organ they think they have a problem with. But no one wants to think they have a mental problem, and most doctors say they just don't know anything about that
area.
Noritoshi Shinkai, Japanese psychiatrist, on lack of treatment for depression,
August 2002, in the NY Times
- It has no fear.
Yasser Sierawan, chess grand master, describing one competitive advantage of IBM's Deep Blue
chess computer, 1996
- Juliet's so happy and in love, but at the same time so sad and lonely. She's totally neurotic. I could really relate.
Alicia Silverstone, Actress, on Shakespeare's Rome and Juliet, 1995
- It's a question of marketing toilets as a status symbol. I want people to aspire to owning a toilet.
Jack Sim, founder of the WTO (World Toilet Organization), on the need for improved sanitation in developing countries, 23Sept2008, on NPR
- It was cool, man, but I'm a little depressed they didn't have a buffet.
Tony Siragusa, 300+ pound football player for the Baltimore Ravens, on a visit to the White House, 2001
- We just took the necessities. The good stuff - the television and the furniture - you just have to hope something's there when you get back. If it's not, you just start over.
Michael Skipper, New Orleans Resident, awaiting landfall of Hurricane Katrina, August 28th, 2005
- It looked like the fall of the Roman Empire.
Ted Soqui, photographer, describing parts of LA after the Northridge Earthquake, 1994
- We have a sock talking at our commencement. It's kind of upsetting.
Southampton College student, commenting on a commencement address by Kermit the Frog, 1996.
- Now the only thing standing between you and a degree is, well, me. And 18 minutes.
S. Frederic Star, author, at Wooster College Graduation, 1995
- At my graduation, I thought we had to marry what we wished to become. Now you are becoming the men you once would have wished to marry.
Gloria Steinem, author and activist, Smith College Graduation, 1995
- I catnap now and then, but I think while I nap, so it's not a waste of time.
Martha Stewart, ever-active home/garden/craft author and TV show personality, 1996.
- It is what you do from now on that will either move our civilization
forward a few tiny steps, or
else...begin to march us steadily backward.
Patrick Stewart, actor and star fleet captain, at Pomona College Graduation, 1995
- Why is it drug addicts and computer afficionados are both called users?
Clifford Stoll, unix sysop, hacker stalker, and author, 1995
- You open Kerri's closet and all the short-sleeved shirts are with the short-sleeved shirts, and the long-sleeved shirts are with the long-sleeved shirts. Her room is always neat; the bed is always made.
Melanie Strug, on her daughter's perfectionist habits (in addition to gymnastics), 1996
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