Quotables

"Schettino, maybe you saved yourself from the sea, but I'll make you have trouble for sure. Go aboard!"

Livorno Port Authority chief Gregorio De Falco, to Francesco Schettino, captain of the luxury ship Costa Concordia, after De Falco learned that the captain fled the ship before all passengers had been rescued. Prosecutors accuse Schettino of causing the ship to crash into rocks off the Italian coast and capsize on Jan. 17.

"Before we know it, we're blacked out because we want to save the whales."

Robert Lawton, a volunteer editor for Wikipedia, on opposing the site's decision to shut down for 24 hours on Jan. 18 to protest anti-piracy legislation.

"Pure survival adrenaline. ... Now I feel anxiety."

Erika Minnberry on how she felt when fleeing a fast-moving brush fire that forced the evacuation of 10,000 people from their homes south of Reno, Nev., on Jan. 19.

"I am proposing that every state, every state, requires that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18."

President Barack Obama in his Jan. 24 State of the Union message. The New York Times called this "a command solution to the dropout problem."

"Iowa was just indicted for not being able to add. We look silly."

David Yepsen, former Des Moines Register columnist, on mistakes in tabulating votes for the Iowa Republican caucuses. On caucus night Republicans declared Mitt Romney an eight-vote victor, but he actually lost to Rick Santorum by 34 votes. Meanwhile, votes from eight precincts are missing and will likely never be found. The mistakes may jeopardize Iowa's traditional role as the first-in-the-nation caucus.