This is the chance of a lifetime for peace in Ireland. You must get it done. You must do it for yourselves and your children. - President Clinton in a St Patrick's Day appeal to Northern party leaders in Washington

If we can't have a united Ireland, then we can't have a united British kingdom. - The Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams

The [British] government can no longer cover up what is going on in there and a full, sworn, judicial inquiry is now an absolute imperative. - DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson on the death in the Maze of a prisoner accused of killing two life-long friends in Poyntzpass

The statutory obligation of an Orangeman requires that he should abstain from all uncharitable words, actions and sentiments towards Roman Catholics. - James Wilson, who is a member of the exclusively Protestant Ulster Society and an authority on Orangeism

Surely the price of peace and an honourable compromise is small compared with the economic stagnation, sectarianism and despair that would be the cost of failure. - Alliance Party leader Lord Alderdice

He was a man of outstanding character, tremendous ability and great personal charm. - The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, on Hugh Coveney

History will tell of the crucial contributions she made, often privately and quietly, at many key moments of the peace process. - Mr Ahern, on US ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith's announcement that she is to leave her post

I have to say Dylan Thomas just cuts me to the bone. - Actress Sharon Stone, asked to name her favourite Irish writer

My career puts me in a position where people are drawn to me. I'm an aphrodisiac, like any man who is successful in any kind of business. - Actor Robert Duvall

Goodnight my darling Aine till we meet again, and may legions of angels sing you to your rest. Truly, there will never be the like of you again. - Gabriel Byrne, in a tribute to the film-maker Aine O'Connor, who died last week

At this moment I feel I would sooner see a herd of wildebeest than face another film crew. - Leonardo DiCaprio, star of Titanic

I would be quite happy to see the Devil's buttermilk banned from society. - The Rev Ian Paisley on draught Guinness

I have to say that I have had three very good meals since I arrived in the Middle East. Being spared a fourth meal is a mercy. - British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, after Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled a dinner with him over his meeting with Palestinian officials at the Har Homa proposed Jewish settlement

The truth is that the majority of Christians did not lift a finger because in their parishes they heard repeated every day that Jews are the perfidious Christ-killers. - Elie Wiesel, a Nobel Prize winner and Nazi death camps survivor, on the Vatican's apology for the Catholic Church's role in the Holocaust

I came out of the monumental shadow of my father and created a monumental shadow for myself. People just thought I was a hippy, a gum-chewing, anti-establishment piece of white trash. - Actor Peter Fonda, son of Henry Fonda

The only hopeful thing in the world is to keep looking for honesty. I think all the rest is a waste of time. - American writer Lucy Ellmann