"Zimbabwe has become a lawless country."

U.S. Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee after police on June 5 detained several U.S. and British diplomats who were investigating reports of violence in the country. The government has also told some Western aid groups to stop serving needy Zimbabweans.

"Well, why . . . if he had all these grave concerns, did he not raise these sooner?"

Scott McClellan, when he was White House press secretary in 2004, on a tell-all book by former Bush administration official Richard Clarke. McClellan's own book bashing the Bush administration, What Happened, hit bookstores late last month.

"I think that that's something that a woman should do when they're marrying a man."

Pop singer Ashlee Wentz, formerly Ashlee Simpson, on legally changing her name after marrying fellow musician Pete Wentz.

"I've had a very good life, filled with love and family and faith. You can make life good, or you can make it bad."

Dianne Odell, who lived nearly her entire life in a 7-foot-long metal tube due to complications from polio. Odell, who despite her health problems gained a high-school diploma and wrote a children's book, died on May 28 at age 61 when a power outage stopped a pump drawing air into her lungs.

"It didn't put no figures in my checkbook."

Singer and performer Bo Diddley, who died June 2 of heart failure at age 79, on receiving many honors from the music industry and others. Diddley, like many early rock 'n' roll musicians, said he received flat fees instead of royalties for his recordings.

"This earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma-when you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"

Actress Sharon Stone, suggesting that the May 12 earthquake in China was the result of bad karma from Chinese aggression against Tibet. The remark drew condemnation from Chinese officials, and Stone later apologized.