Quotables

"The Democrats think they benefit from a government shutdown. I agree."

House Speaker John Boehner to other House Republicans at an April 4 meeting ahead of an April 8 deadline for reaching an agreement with Senate Democrats on a 2011 budget to avoid a shutdown of nonessential government functions. Added Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio, in an interview with Politco: "If you want to cede the presidential race in 2012, you shut down the government."

"It takes about three generations for people to forget."

Fumihiko Imamura, professor in disaster planning at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, on stone markers, some more than 600 years old, in Japan that warn not to build below those points because of the danger of tsunamis. The small village of Aneyoshi escaped damage from the March tsunami because all of the homes are on ground above one such tablet.

"I am absolutely shocked that it took Attorney General Holder 507 days to come to this realization."

U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., on the Justice Department's April 4 announcement that the government would try 9/11 suspects in military tribunals, an approach President Obama had suspended in 2009.

"I always said asking for foreign aid would be the final way to go, but we have reached the moment."

Jose Socrates, prime minister of Portugal, on asking the European Union for a financial bailout after long avoiding such a request. The government said it would not meet its 2010 budget deficit target.

"I truly believe America owes a lot to Roger Ailes and Fox News."

Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck on the network and its CEO after the network announced that it would no longer run Beck's popular show.