It would be disingenuous to pretend that John was a supreme intellectual force; he wasn't. But he was more than a symbol of courtly grace and nonchalant glamour. He used his celebrity stature to make a positive contribution to politics.
- Douglas Brinkley, John F. Kennedy jnr's friend, writing in the New York Times
What's going to happen to all those people who made careers out of being friends with John Kennedy?
- An unnamed friend
He ran in from the farm saying there was electricity in the grass and all because he got stung by nettles.
- Patrick Grennan, recalling a visit by his cousin JFK jnr as a child to the ancestral homestead in Dunganstown, Co Wexford
I'm no Charles Lindbergh, I'm not the most experienced pilot in the world.
- Concern apparently expressed by Mr Kennedy before the fatal flight
It's only once in a lifetime that you have a millennium.
- John Ussher, Irish Taxi Drivers' Federation president, whose members are seeking treble fares for the millennium
If anyone is good at telling tales, he's the best.
- Builder Michael Bailey, of James Gogarty, during his evidence to the Flood tribunal
This stuff's not bad. But isn't it a bit, you know, like inflatable women?
- Actor Donal McCann, who has died, of Kaliber, which aided his fight against alcohol
A world-class Lear in long johns, with an ego about one-twentieth the size of a Hollywood bit player.
- Newsweek, of Mr McCann
Those who demand the decommissioning of IRA weapons lend themselves, in the current political context, inadvertently or otherwise, to the failed agenda which seeks the defeat of the IRA. The British government have the power to change that context and should do so.
- IRA statement last Wednesday
It doesn't take a genius to work out it is going to be nigh impossible to bring about decommissioning by May 2000. I think many people could be forgiven for thinking there is no likelihood whatsoever of there being an executive, not this year or next.
- Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein
One day you will stand before the Supreme Judge.
- Father Pat McCafferty, to the IRA killers of Eamon Molloy (21)
There are still too many unanswered questions regarding this murder, which I and many others believe was state-sponsored, state-sanctioned and state-arranged.
- David Wright, father of the Portadown loyalist, Billy Wright, asked why he was campaigning for an inquiry with three men already convicted of the killing
To have your loved one bundled ignominiously into the suitcase and callously abandoned in a car-park, I think, is awful.
- Det Insp Richard Taber, of Fatima Kama, the woman found stabbed 10 times and dumped at Heathrow Airport
I've seen some of the people that worked for the tobacco companies up close and I found them an insincere shower of bastards . . . I would say to any young man or woman, leave the dreaded tobacco out of your life.
- Alex Higgins, the former world snooker champion, who has cancer
I am kidnapped. There has been no trial over here [Britain], there has been no investigation of evidence to support their accusations against me.
- Gen Augusto Pinochet