Verbatim

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?"

SPECIALIST THOMAS WILSON, of the Tennessee National Guard, to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a town-hall meeting with soldiers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait; later, a reporter revealed he had prompted Wilson to ask the question

"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

RUMSFELD, in response to Wilson

"We are expressing confidence in the Secretary-General and in his continuing in office."

JOHN DANFORTH, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., in the Bush Administration's first show of support for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan since calls for his resignation last week

"I just assume somewhere in my life some knucklehead has looked at me and my brown self and said that they have given me less or denied me an opportunity. But the bottom line is, and my wife will attest to this, I am so insensitive I probably didn't notice."

GERALD A. REYNOLDS, newly appointed chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, describing his experiences with racism in the U.S.

"We're not going to win at the ballot box until we start winning at the water cooler and in the church pews."

STEVEN FISHER, communications director of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group, on same-sex marriage

"We're going to fight until blood comes out of our eyes. We're going to stop at nothing."

SHAWN PATRICK SMITH, attorney for Detroit Pistons fan John Green, charged in the brawl at the Pistons--Indiana Pacers game

"Run around the park, and go to the gym."

STEPHEN PILLING, British scientist, describing alternative remedies for mild depression; he recommends a 70% decrease in prescriptions of antidepressants

Sources: AP (2); New York Times (4); Washington Post