“If (the West) shows its rigidity by making unjust decisions and putting their threats into practice, the Iranian people will not be the only ones to pay the price.”

Condi Rice talks tough but she cannot be tough herself.

Things like unemployment, which the youth are suffering from, and the rate of inflation – these are chronic conditions and we have to solve them.

We do not trust the goodwill of the U.S. They have cut the ties.

I believe the main solution is to gain the trust of Europe and America and to remove their concerns over the peaceful nature of our nuclear industry and to assure them that there will never be a diversion to military use.

We don’t have any bad memories of the people of the United States.

Each department and institution has its own authorities and responsibilities, and they act on that basis.

Iran is determined to use peaceful nuclear technology and no intimidation or threat can make us give it up.

I think the elections have gone well, although there is so much insecurity in Iraq. So far during the counting of ballots.

We have no problems with Jews and highly respect Judaism as a holy religion.

We want all the Palestinians back in their homeland, and then there can be a fair referendum for people to choose the form of state they want. Whoever gets the majority can rule.

When al-Qaeda was on the run from Afghanistan crossing through Iran, some were arrested and they are imprisoned. Some of them are charged with some actions in Iran.

I only know that the sole option is to leave Iraq to the Iraqi people.

There has not been a significant complaint. We have to wait to see what the outcome of the counting is.

It was the will of the Iraqi people and the religious authorities. [The elections] were the result of pressure by Ayatollah Sistani, by the Iraqi religious authorities, and by the fighting forces in Iraq on America. They left the US no choice but to allow the elections.

We did not treat the Americans badly. They left Iran in a relaxed mood.

The Zarqawi groups uses car bombs, the Americans use other bombs. You also know what they do in the prisons.

On the bright side,” Percy said, “both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up.

The obstacles preventing the realization of both these extreme states are of the same nature: they derive from our human condition which is opposed to everything infinite.

One of the funny things about the stock market is that every time one person buys, another sells, and both think they are astute.

I gasp, pressing both palms to my chest. Now the monstrous thing has its claws around my throat, squeezing my airway. I twist and put my head between my knees, breathing until the strangled feeling leaves me.

In France you get freedom of action: you can do what you like and nobody bothers, but you must think like everybody else. In Germany you must do what everybody else does, but you may think as you choose. They’re both very good things.

We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war. A new era is upon us.

I guess we’ll see how it turns out and which one overpowers the other… but I couldn’t really see my life without them, both of them.

I feel like myself, strong and weak at once – allowed, at least for a little while, to be both.