Verbatim

‘The places where we were locked out, I’m going to have the key.’ JAMES A. YOUNG, the first black man to be elected mayor of Philadelphia, Miss., a town made infamous by the 1964 murders of three civil rights activists by the Ku Klux Klan

‘It’s worse than September 11 or hurricanes.’ EDUARDO CHAILLO, U.S. regional director at the Mexico Tourism Board, on launching a $90 million ad campaign to combat negative publicity from the swine-flu outbreak

‘Death to the government of potato!’ SUPPORTERS of Iranian presidential hopeful Mir-Hossein Moussavi, referring to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who distributed 400,000 tons of free potatoes in the run-up to the country’s June 12 election

‘To tell you the truth, they were rude.’ RAMON HUERTA, a retired chef, on the L.A. police officers who mistakenly raided his home during the largest gang crackdown in U.S. history, which yielded more than 90 arrests in a single day

‘You have frightened those who want to frighten you.’ NINO BURDZHANADZE, Georgian opposition leader, addressing more than 60,000 supporters who gathered on May 26–a national holiday–to call for President Mikheil Saakashvili’s resignation

‘I am not afraid of walking up to any gallows, having defeated the world’s worst terrorists.’ MAHINDA RAJAPAKSA, Sri Lankan President, on suggestions that he and his advisers should be investigated for committing war crimes during the country’s 26-year conflict

‘This is the best month of May ever.’ HELIO CASTRONEVES, race-car driver, on capturing his third Indianapolis 500 just weeks after being acquitted of tax evasion

Back & Forth:

Health

‘I’d tell them to back off.’ DANIEL HAUSER, a 13-year-old cancer patient from Minnesota, on critics who say he is too young to determine his course of treatment. Hauser briefly fled the state with his mother to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy, which violates his religious beliefs

‘They are good people. I just think they’ve been misled by some in the alternative medical community.’ DR. BRUCE BOSTROM, the pediatric oncologist who first treated Hauser. The boy has since agreed to undergo treatment

History

‘Why we failed is a mystery to me.’ ROBERT H. PHELPS, a former editor at the New York Times, who revealed in his memoir that the newspaper had ignored an early tip on the Watergate scandal

‘Watergate wasn’t about a tip. It was about extensive reporting and getting information you can put in the paper.’ BOB WOODWARD, the reporter who broke the Watergate story with fellow Washington Post scribe Carl Bernstein, saying Phelps’ account “falls in the category of history, what if?”

Media

‘They cut off our heads. We put water on their face.’

ERICH (MANCOW) MULLER, a Chicago-based radio host, arguing on his show that waterboarding is not a form of torture

‘I was willing to prove and ready to prove that this was a joke, and I was wrong.’ MULLER, after allowing himself to be waterboarded for seven seconds; he later described the experience as “horrific” and “absolutely torture.”

For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: CNN (2); New York Times; Los Angeles Times; AP; Reuters; AP