Verbatim

"It seems like it gets harder every year." PAT HAWLEY, 44, whose older sister, Karen Sue Juday, was killed on Sept. 11, at the ceremony at ground zero marking the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks

"It's absolutely essential that ... we make the right choice because, if we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again." VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY, campaigning in Iowa, implying that a vote for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry would make another terrorist strike more likely

"What he said was meant to scare voters, period. It was way over the top and, I think, un-American." JOHN EDWARDS, Democratic vice-presidential candidate, reacting to Cheney's comment

"Does it rank up there with chopping someone's head off on television? It doesn't." DONALD RUMSFELD, Secretary of Defense, in response to questions regarding U.S. mistreatment of inmates at military prisons

"Call it civil war. Call it ethnic cleansing. Call it genocide ... The reality is the same. There are people in Darfur who desperately need the help of the international community." COLIN POWELL, Secretary of State, calling on the U.N. to take action in war-torn Sudan

"I'm extremely angry, bitter, upset. I feel cheated. Should I go on? I just feel robbed." SERENA WILLIAMS, after her loss to Jennifer Capriati at the U.S. Open in a match marred by several questionable calls by the chair umpire that went against Williams

"I don't want to be known as the place that stuck him in the hospital. I'm trying to slough it all off on the Big Mac and French fries." SCOTT MCCLARD, owner of McClard's, Bill Clinton's favorite barbecue joint in Hot Springs, Ark., after the President's clogged arteries led to his heart-bypass operation

Sources: Associated Press; Washington Post (2); Associated Press; New York Times (2); Associated Press