Quotations

Sound bites: January - March 2003

I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour. But sometimes it is the price of leadership and the cost of conviction.

Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

I'm ugly and I want the part.

Kathy Burke, British actress, on playing Anne of Cleves in a TV series about Henry VIII

It is not well-brought-up behaviour. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet.

Jacques Chirac, President of France, criticizing the support for the Anglo-American stance on Iraq from Central and Eastern European states about to join the European Union

Our business now is north.

Tim Collins, British Lieutentant-Colonel, addressing troops who had landed in Iraq and were about to move off

The best way to solve problems is not to have enemies.

Sheryl Crow, American musician

It was a freakish incident. If I tried it 100 or a million times it couldn't happen again. If I could; I would have carried on playing!

Alex Ferguson, Scottish footballer and football manager, on his kicking a football boot which struck and grazed David Beckham's face

Eighty per cent of us were as bored as dead rats.

Luc Ferry, French education minister, on his schooldays

We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed.

Andy Flower and Henry Olonga, Zimbabwean cricketers who wore black armbands at their opening World Cup match in protest at President Mugabe's regime in their homeland

Tony Blair is no longer Prime Minister of Britain, he is the foreign minister of the United States.

Nelson Mandela, South African statesman

When it is over, if it is over, this war will have horrible consequences. Instead of having one bin Laden, we will have 100 bin Ladens.

Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt

You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.

Donald Rumsfeld, American Defense Secretary

There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!

Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, former Iraqi Minister of Information

Reckless with our government; reckless with his own future, position and place in history. It's extraordinarily reckless.

Clare Short, British Labour politician, on Tony Blair's policy on Iraq

The enemy we're fighting is a bit different than the one we wargamed against.

William Wallace, American general

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