QUOTE UNQUOTE

I was always the one to test out the limitations of the costume. I was the first to fall off my chair and roll over. I took all the risks - Dave Thompson, actor, on his departure from the role of Tinky Winky in the cult children's TV series `Teletubbies'

After 25 years, I am leaving the BBC. When I joined it was led by giants. Now it's led by pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds - Alan Towers, BBC Midlands newsreader, who said farewell with an on-screen outburst

Add 15 inches to your stride and save 41 per cent of insects - Ivor Cutler, poet

Let's face it, London's a mess - Lord Archer, on the need for a mayor for the capital

If you go to Tuscany you keep meeting ministers - David Blunkett, Education Secretary, explaining where he is not going for his holidays this year

We are now so oppressively over-informed about celebrities that one wonders how any of them could possibly ever surprise us - Graham McCann, Fellow of King's College, Cambridge

The events of his purge and trial were so traumatic that I thought he might die during the process. You could see the anguish on his face as he was denounced by his former loyalists. He was close to tears - Nate Thayer, journalist, on the trial of Pol Pot in Cambodia