Verbatim

‘My play on those words fell flat. It was bad.’ SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. Supreme Court nominee, explaining during confirmation hearings that her remark about a “wise Latina” judge alluded to retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s adage about wise men and women reaching the same verdict

‘The credit pendulum is stuck at “stupid.”‘ LOU BARNES, owner of a Colorado mortgage bank, criticizing new requirements that he says have forced him to deny loans to qualified applicants

‘I am known as “invisible man.”‘ BAN KI-MOON, admitting he has “really struggled” to develop his public profile; a recent poll found that 81% of Americans either had no opinion of the U.N. Secretary-General or had never heard of him

‘I’d say it’s not routine.’ MARILEE MCINNIS, spokeswoman for Southwest Airlines, on the football-size hole that opened in the cabin of an airborne plane on July 6; no one was injured during the emergency landing

‘Haven’t they had their pound of flesh yet?’ CHARLES TAYLOR, former Liberian President and the first African leader to be tried for war crimes in the Hague, saying the charges against him are “lies” motivated by revenge

‘Give it to China. Let them support the damn thing.’ ROBERT PARK, a physicist at the University of Maryland, on the International Space Station, which may be deorbited in 2016 because of a lack of funding

‘Our credit is ruined, we won’t be able to buy another house, somebody exposed my kids to meth, and my dog died.’ FRANCISCA RODRIGUEZ, on purchasing a Grapevine, Texas, house that, unbeknownst to her, had been previously used as an illegal methamphetamine lab

BACK & FORTH

Politics

‘She had talked about how nice it would be to take some of this money people had been offering us and, you know, just run with it, say, “Forget everything else.”‘ LEVI JOHNSTON, ex-fiancé of Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol, telling reporters that Palin resigned as Alaska’s governor to cash in on her fame

‘It is interesting to learn Levi is working on a piece of fiction while honing his acting skills.’ MEGHAN STAPLETON, Palin-family spokeswoman, dismissing Johnston’s remarks

Race

‘There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.’ JOHN DUESLER, head of a suburban-Philadelphia swim club that rescinded its contract with a day camp whose children are mostly black or Hispanic

‘That was a terrible choice of words, I admit.’ DUESLER, saying the club, which is being sued for discrimination, was concerned about a lack of lifeguards; it has since invited the campers to return

LEXICON

Pacman Challenge n.–British military slang for patrolling dangerous regions of Afghanistan

USAGE: “The soldiers call it the ‘Pacman Challenge’–dodging the scores of booby traps, trip wires and charges laid by the Taliban in the fertile soil of Afghanistan’s Sangin valley. The reference, to an arcade computer game, is one of the ways the soldiers make light of the deadly gauntlet they run every day in the district.” –Daily Telegraph, July 11, 2009

For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: Fox News; New York Times; Wall Street Journal; AP; Times of London; Washington Post; New York Times