This Week They Said

The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their backbone

The President and I cannot prevent certain politicians from losing their backbone. But we're not going to sit by and let them rewrite history.

- US vice-president Dick Cheney dismisses claims that the administration misled the public over the need for war in Iraq

The Asian region, indeed all regions, are better off as democracies. Societies become more stable as they give more say to their people.

- President Bush urges China to embrace democracy

READ MORE

They said: you are a terrorist who kills Shia. Then they broke my teeth.

- Mohammed Azzawi, an Iraqi teacher and one of hundreds of citizens who says he has been physically mistreated by the new regime

Spain's view of the Franco regime is ambivalent. Many still see [ him] as a benevolent figure whose tactics were necessary at the time.

- Paloma Aguilar, a professor of political science in Madrid

The three of us are a good team. It works very well for us because it's a fairly big house and we all have our space.

- Rhonda Paisley, daughter of the Rev Ian Paisley says, in an interview last summer, that she enjoys living with her parents. This week it emerged she has launched a sexual discrimination action against Paisley's DUP party

Whatever needs to be paid, will have to be paid.

- Minister for Finance Brian Cowen says the nursing home controversy could cost the State some €400 million

Their biological clocks are ticking away quietly and [ are] not taking any notice of the Celtic Tiger.

- Dr Tony Walsh, medical director of the Sims Clinic at Rathgar, Dublin, which has had to introduce waiting lists for couples seeking fertility treatment

A tide of lawlessness sweeps through Dublin.

- Jim O'Keeffe, Fine Gael spokesman on justice, commenting on the latest gangland killings in the city

There was no intention to offend anybody's sensibilities and if they were offended I regret that.

- Willie O'Dea, Minister for Defence, criticised for pointing a gun at a photographer at an Army press event

A tendency in Iran is trying to banish competent officials and it is harming the country like a plague.

- Akbar Hasehmi Rafsanjani, former president of Iran, says the new regime in Tehran has embarked on a series of purges

Whilst it is a sad day for me to leave such a great club and manager I believe that the time has now come for me to move on. After so many years, I will miss everyone at the club.

- Roy Keane leaves Manchester United

The established nations keep passing the ball around their friends. World rugby has lost a big opportunity because of this decision.

- Yoshiro Mori, president of the Japanese Rugby Union, which failed to win the right to host the 2011 World Cup

I'm opening up a stud farm. I'm going to have the sexiest men on earth. Women are going to love it.

- Heidi Fleiss, the former Hollywood madam, plans to open a "rooster ranch" (male brothel) in the Nevada desert

It's a little bit more expensive than we thought it might be, but we were fairly determined to get it.

- John McStay, chairman of the Limerick Leader newspaper, which paid €30,500 for an All Ireland medal won by Limerick in the first football final, in 1887

If it comes to it, a taoiseach-in-waiting needs to cosy up to Sinn Féin in the Dáil chamber or a corridor. Do you want to put a bet on it that we won't be getting phone calls?

- Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams suggests the party may be closer to a place in government that the leaders of other political parties would have us believe

The problem is that most Serbs and Croats would rather not have this country.

- Bojan Bajic, a political activist from Bosnia, says the country's ethnic communities have failed to integrate after a decade of peace