"In our recovery package we put new standards of accountability and transparency, which we hope will now apply."

"Let's just do what is right for the American people. And those of us who are involved in politics and government know that our responsibility is to the American people, that we have a responsibility to find our common ground, to seek it and to find it."

"We're sad about some of the losses of members of great seniority and distinction in the Congress, and some very new members, who will no longer be serving with us."

"The American dream is about freedom."

"That's one of the great things about poetry one realises that one does one's little turn - that you're just part of the great crop, as it were."

"As I get older I think, contrary to modern assumption but in line with the old Lerner and Lowe song, that it would actually benefit both them and society if - to quote Professor Higgins - a woman could be more like a man."

"I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive."

"I subscribe to no religion. But I believe that in the creation of art, there can be moments of God."