Verbatim

'Everyone involved in baseball--the commissioners, club officials, the Players Association, players--shares responsibility.'

GEORGE MITCHELL, former Senate majority leader, on his report implicating 82 major league players as having taken performance-enhancing drugs

'They left me militia, they left me gangsters, and they left me all the troubles in the world.'

JALIL KHALAF, Iraqi police commander in Basra, on British forces withdrawing from the city and surrounding province

'My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali--we all know that.'

AL GORE, Nobel Prize winner, on efforts at the U.N. climate-change summit to hatch a plan to cut greenhouse gases

'As long as I am President of Serbia, I will never accept the independence of Kosovo.'

BORIS TADIC, Serbian President, on the autonomous province of Kosovo, which is expected to unilaterally declare independence in the coming weeks

'With the New Year upon us, I am left with a difficult decision: either go back to work and keep my staff employed or stay dark and allow 80 people ... to lose their jobs.'

CONAN O'BRIEN, late-night TV host, on his plan to resume programming on Jan. 2 after two months of honoring the Hollywood writers' strike

'I'm trying to elongate the evening.'

CELINE DION, singer, who ended the last of her 717 performances at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas with seven costume changes and several speeches about her career and family

MORE OF THE BEST QUOTES AT TIME.COM

For daily sound bites, visit time.com/quotes

Sources: Salt Lake Tribune; Guardian; UPI; Reuters; Washington Post; New York Times