Verbatim
'Don't be afraid of the foreigners. If they try to harm you, I will stand in front of them.' HAMID KARZAI, Afghan President, saying he would personally protect Taliban and other militant leaders from U.S. and NATO troops if they agreed to participate in peace talks
'I've been hearing about his Senate speeches since I was in, like, the second grade.' SARAH PALIN, Republican vice-presidential candidate, on Democratic rival Joe Biden
'Such shame does not exist elsewhere in the world.' BUGUN, Turkish newspaper, after 13 babies died of infection within 24 hours in one of Turkey's most modern maternity hospitals
'Democracy is bigger than any one person.' WILLIAM C. THOMPSON JR., New York City comptroller, decrying the prospect that Mayor Michael Bloomberg will push for a change in city law to run for a third term. Thompson plans to run for mayor in 2009
'Each doctor may carry one weapon for self-defense.' IRAQI GOVERNMENT, announcing in a statement that the nation's doctors may arm themselves amid increasing violence against health-care workers
'We believe a mother's milk is best used for her child.' SEAN GREENWOOD, Ben & Jerry's spokesman, after PETA suggested the company use breast milk instead of cow's milk in its ice cream
'My name is not Gordon.' MICHAEL DOUGLAS, actor, referring to Gordon Gekko, his character in 1987's Wall Street, when asked about the financial crisis and whether "greed ... is good"
Back & Forth:
Congress
'We could have gotten there today had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House.' House minority leader JOHN BOEHNER, accusing Nancy Pelosi of diminishing Republican support for the $700 billion bailout plan
'Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country?' Massachusetts Democrat BARNEY FRANK, mocking House Republicans for their "pettiness" and "hypersensitivity"
Nobel Prize
'The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature.' HORACE ENGDAHL, member of the Nobel Literature award jury, criticizing American writers for being "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture"
'Put him in touch with me, and I'll send him a reading list.' HAROLD AUGENBRAUM, head of the U.S. National Book Foundation, saying such comments reveal a poor grasp of American literature
Music
'They've ignored what we think is their core, their sweet spot.' CHARLES CALDAS, head of Merlin, a licensing agency that represents indie music labels. Caldas blasted MySpace for its new music service, which offered ad-revenue-sharing deals only to established, rather than independent, record labels
'No one on this side wants this to be a major-label-only service.' MySpace co-founder and president TOM ANDERSON, saying negotiations are ongoing
Sources: New York Times; Fox News; AP; New York Times; Reuters; AP (2)
For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes