Quotables

“I took to the streets because I’m tired of being hungry. … I don’t have water, I don’t have anything.”

SARA NARANJO, an elderly Cuban woman who joined anti-government protests in the country on July 11, in a video posted to Twitter.

“A government that can crush someone like Barronelle … can use its power to crush any of us regardless of our political ideology or views on important issues like marriage.”

KRISTEN WAGGONER, general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, commenting on the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 2 decision not to hear the case of Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman, who had declined to make a custom floral arrangement for a same-sex wedding. The ruling means Stutzman must pay a $1,000 fine and serve same-sex weddings or no longer create wedding arrangements.

“M-U-R-R-A-Y-A.”

Fourteen-year-old ZAILA AVANT-GARDE, correctly spelling the name of a genus of tropical flowering trees to win the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee on July 8. The first African American to win the competition, Avant-garde also holds three Guinness World Records for her basketball dribbling skills.

“It’s the biggest increase in overdose deaths in the history of the United States.”

Stanford professor KEITH HUMPHREYS, an expert on addiction and drug policy, commenting to The Washington Post on the record high 93,331 drug overdose deaths among Americans last year, according to provisional figures U.S. health officials released July 14.

“Everything can only be happy from now on.”

GUO GANGTANG, a Chinese man who on July 11 was reunited with his long-lost son, kidnapped by human traffickers as a child in 1997. Guo spent 24 years searching China for his son, scouring the country on a motorbike and inspiring a 2015 movie in the process.