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You were, and still are, our own private hero and I want you to know that everything I ever did was for you - Noa Ben-Artzi, aged 17, in a eulogy to her grandfather, Yitzhak Rabin

It was a victory for Labour and a victory for the people, who are sick of Tory sleaze - John Prescott, Labour's deputy leader, after MPs threw out proposals to keep details of their earnings secret

Some of her ideas approached genius - the one in Murder on the Orient Express, for example. I just don't think she wrote very well - Ruth Rendell, author, who dislikes being compared with Agatha Christie

He can have my seat; no money, no family life, lots of public opprobrium, and no sex - George Walden, Conservative MP, on being told that a journalist he knows was thinking of entering Parliament

When my time comes I'd like to be an irascible 80, fall asleep at Lord's when Yorkshire are beating Middlesex and not wake up - Michael Parkinson, broadcaster

The prisons are full of indoor horticulturists, harmless people - David Hockney, the artist, who believes cannabis should be legalised

Due to the water shortage, the ale is now being served at full strength - notice outside a Sheffield hotel