Quote Unquote

My job is to be noble and fine - Clare Short, Secretary of State for Overseas Development

Before Blair tries to suck up to the IRA by apologising for Bloody Sunday, shouldn't the IRA apologise for the bloody Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday they have inflicted on the people of this country? - Lord Tebbit, Tory peer

Some young writers cannot get their work produced if they don't set out to shock. And so many people I know are reluctant to go to the theatre because there is so much filth and violence - Peter Wolff, philanthropist

Ever since my daughter was born, I feel the fleetingness of time, and I don't want to waste it on getting the perfect lip colour - Madonna, pop singer

The worst career move any tyrant can make is to soften the regime - George Walden, former Tory minister

It is an Opposition of trivial pursuits, frankly, at the moment - Tony Blair

I was writing my PhD thesis on reduced dimensionality in molecular representation when we decided to write the tackiest, glitziest film instead - Tom Barlow, a research fellow at Balliol, Oxford, who co-wrote a screenplay for the movie `Married to Malcolm'

The Scottish people will one day become extinct - John Vincent, historian, on the Scots' falling birthrate