America is showing a trend away from frivolity.

Writer/director Randall Wallace, on the popularity of serious war dramas that don't take a cynical view of American forces.

I think people have been waiting for something. And I believe when we did this old-time country music, the people may have found what they've been waiting for.

Singer Emmylou Harris, after the soundtrack for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?, on which she sang, won a Grammy award last week for best album.

It's window dressing.

Ryo Hino, an analyst at J.P. Morgan in Tokyo, on the economic recovery plan proposed last week by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Japan, once considered an economic powerhouse, has been mired in an economic slump that has lasted more than a decade. Many economists have criticized the country's politicians for refusing to take politically difficult free-market steps that would help the economy.

That was sweet defeat.

U2 Guitarist The Edge, after O Brotherwon the best album Grammy, beating U2. "We wouldn't have wanted to lose to anyone other than T Bone," he said of O Brother's producer, T Bone Burnett. The Irish rock band did win four other Grammys.

It's what keeps me alive. So many people don't do anything when they're retired. I can't even imagine not having this to do.

Retired teacher Ludima Gus Burton, 81, on her new vocation as a romance novelist. She has published three novels and has several other manuscripts in the works.

Oh, Tom, I take two lumps in my coffee, not just one.

U.S. Sen. James Jeffords, to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, joking about his importance to the Democrats after the former Vermont Republican became an independent. His switch gave Democrats control of the Senate.