“If they’re really that late for work, they should get up earlier.”

— Train conductor Otto Ray, questioning the wisdom of motorists who risk beating a train through a crossing because they fear waiting a few minutes might make them late for work.

“We think we’ve addressed it. And we’ll continue to address it.”

— Geiger Corrections Director Leon Long, talking about what the state minimum-security facility is doing in the wake of seven prisoner escapes or accidental releases in the past year.

“He’s making a fetish out of $30 tabs.”

— Seattle blogger David Goldstein, referring to initiative specialist Tim Eyman whose latest proposal would roll back any state or local increase in motor vehicle licensing fees above the $30 approved by voters in Initiative 695 in 1999.

“The United States is committed to the success of the United Nations, and we view the U.N. as an important component of our diplomacy.”

— John R. Bolton, nominee as U.N. ambassador, at last Monday’s Senate confirmation hearing.

“If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”

— John R. Bolton in a 1994 speech.

“I’m as conservative as John Bolton is, but the fact is that the collateral damage and the personal hurt that he causes is not worth the price that had to be paid.”

— The State Department’s former intelligence chief Carl W. Ford Jr. , addressing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering Bolton’s nomination.

“In the eyes of history, we were mostly invisible.”

— Denny Hurtado, a member of the Skokomish tribe, voicing support for a bill in the Washington Legislature to require public schools to teach American Indian history.

“I want to make sure they are an aid and not a hindrance.”

— Spokane Valley citizen Bill Gothmann, worrying that a newly authorized public relations position for his city could result in a person who limited access to information rather than facilitated it.

“I’m just rooting around trying to find ways to be useful.”

— U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, Mississippi Republican who was deposed as Senate majority leader following controversial praise for retiring Sen. Strom Thurmond, quoted by the Washington Post in a story about Lott’s potential for reclaiming lost political power.