There were marchers on the street . . . saying we dare not touch their cancer services - and this week we face into a Portlaoise situation where we're being blamed for not having changed the system. - Health Service Executive chief executive Brendan Drumm addresses the controversy over breast cancer misdiagnosis in Portlaoise.
It is not a message that will carry much weight.
- David Begg, general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, says Government calls for wage restraint ring hollow in the wake of recent pay rises for senior Ministers.
This is really only playing smokes and daggers with it.
- The Taoiseach in reference to criticism of his pay rise.
I'm unarmed - let me go.
- Pakistan pro-democracy figure Benazir Bhutto to security forces who encircled her house, placing her under house arrest.
I want my solicitor here.
- Thomas "Slab" Murphy on being arrested and charged with tax evasion.
I am definitely honoured that a black man is running for the presidency, but to be honest, he has to do something for black people.
- Rapper P Diddy on Barack Obama's run for the White House.
When's the last time you walked by a pub in Dublin and heard Irish music? When's the last time you ordered a coffee and heard an Irish person taking the order from you?
- "Lord of the Dance" Michael Flatley fears Ireland is losing its identity.
We will welcome positive co-ordination and co-operation for Myanmar affairs, but will never accept any interference that may harm our sovereignty.
- Kyaw Hsan, Burmese information minister, refuses to accept UN proposals for talks with pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit.
- The message Finnish student Pekka-Eric Auvinen posted on YouTube hours before going on a killing rampage, shooting dead eight people and then turning the gun on himself.
There is something much bigger that drives us all.
I'm willing to take that leap of faith.
- Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe plans to be baptised.
I don't have anything else to grow.
- Muhammad Ayud, an Afghan peasant, who has started growing cannabis after his opium poppies were wiped out by a government campaign.
Users must pick up and collect the scattered coins and reflect on their laziness.
- A spokesman for Japanese toy manufacturer Tomy, which has invented an "exploding" piggy bank which violently scatters its coins if not topped up frequently enough.
Frankly, we are very familiar with all this - it's just like listening to any county or city official's reports. . .
If so, why pay such a high price to hear the same thing?
Is it worth the money?
Do these thoughts multiply in value because they come from the mouth of a retired prime minister?
- The China Youth Daily is dismissive of a "cliched" presentation by former British prime minister Tony Blair, who was reportedly paid more than €400,000 for one speaking engagement in the country.