This Week They Said

I think I learnt more going around the clubs of Barnsley than I learnt at Oxford about the human race in general.

I think I learnt more going around the clubs of Barnsley than I learnt at Oxford about the human race in general.

- William Hague, leader of the Conservative Party in Britain

It was with regret that I heard of the death today of UUP president Sir Josias Cunningham. To his family and friends and to Mr [David] Trimble and his colleagues, I extend my deepest condolences at this difficult time.

- Mr Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein leader. Sir Josias died in a car accident on Wednesday

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There are signs that they have stepped up their recruitment of hardline Provos ready for a renewal of their campaign.

- An RUC spokesman talking about the "Real IRA"

I have a sense that the securocrats are using this spectre of dissident republicans to justify their occupation of this part of the world.

- Gerry Adams, in a call for speedier demilitarisation

It is time Martin McGuinness and Bairbre de Brun admitted that they administer British rule in Northern Ireland and stopped trying to pacify the hard men of the republican movement.

- PUP MLA Billy Hutchinson, of Sinn Fein ministers' refusal to fly the Union flag for the queen mother's 100th birthday

I'm just an ordinary guy who got caught up in the conflict.

- Shankill bomber Sean Kelly

There is no way I would be attracted to a man of my own age because he couldn't keep up. I need someone 15 years younger. They listen better and are, er, more flexible.

- Actress Shirley MacLaine (66)

It really changed my life. When we split up, something changed permanently in me. My heart sort of broke that day and it will never be the same.

- Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, on the break-up of her relationship with Brad Pitt

He was the first person to think he had a right to ask a question and also a right to get an answer.

- Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman of Sir Robin Day, who has died

We have to instil in the public that a driving licence is not a right, it's a privilege.

- Des Cummins, chief executive of the Driving Instructors Register

Al Gore and I have pretty much walked the same path, and where we have disagreements, they've been good-faith disagreements.

- Senator Joseph Lieberman, Mr Gore's vice-presidential running mate

I think if my ghost could hover outside some London Underground station on a foggy November night just as the crowds were pouring down, I'd like to see the poster, "ACTOR DIES".

- The actor Sir Alec Guinness, asked shortly before his death how he would like his obituary to look