QUOTE UNQUOTE

It's horrific, isn't it. This puts everything into perspective - Diana, Princess of Wales, after visiting child victims of land-mines in Angola

Even if life did exist elsewhere, we might not recognise it. Absence of evidence won't be evidence of absence - Professor Sir Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal

There is an unconscious aggression on the part of the cougher. I don't know why they do it. No one coughs in other countries - Harold Pinter, playwright, on audience behaviour in the theatre

The Spice Girls are more interesting because they disprove this theory that the young cannot remember the horrors of a Labour administration - Bernard Jenkin, Tory MP

The last thing you need on a tough expedition is an eccentric. We select people for our expeditions who are completely level-headed and stable. If we spot any eccentricity, we try to beat it out - Sir Ranulph Fiennes, explorer

Most London houses have anorexia, tall and skinny like their owners. I'd never looked up so many noses till I came here - Kathy Lette, Australian novelist

We have done our whack. We've increased productivity with fewer men - but it's not enough for Ford - Peter Taylor, production worker 45, commenting on news that 1,300 jobs are to be axed at Ford's Halewood plant