“I’ve got to hear from the people who write the checks.”

— Gonzaga University basketball star Adam Morrison, as the Zags’ season came to an end in the NCAA tournament, explaining that he would consult with his family before deciding whether to enter the National Basketball Association draft or return to GU for his senior year.

“Why the heck was it 3 o’clock Wednesday when they threw them out? At the very least, I think there should have been some communication with the parents.”

— Parent Linda Miller, whose sophomore daughter is one of the Lake City High School students who were sent home for two days last week after it was learned that a student had brought several vials of mercury to the Coeur d’Alene school.

“We’re not just a bunch of offices, we are a health clinic.”

— Spokane County Health Officer Kim Thorburn, reacting to news that Spokane County Commissioners are contemplating the sale of the County Health District’s building on College Avenue.

“We have 52 of our finest Americans who were held hostage. They go to court, and you know who appears against them? The State Department.”

— Congressman Brad Sherman, D-Calif., complaining that diplomatic concerns in the Bush administration are obstructing legal efforts to sue Iran for damages on behalf of Americans held captive by the Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime in 1980.

“I just killed a kid.”

— Charles Martin, a 66-year-old Ohio man, reporting to a 911 dispatcher that his neighbors had harassed him for five years by walking across his carefully groomed lawn and he’d just shot their 15-year-old son.

“I feel horribly inadequate to pardon someone who did nothing wrong. We should be asking them to pardon us for the way we treated her and others in that period.”

— Mayor Bobby Bright of Montgomery, Ala., where there are different opinions about a proposal to grant a pardon to civil rights legend Rosa Parks and others who were charged with violating segregation-era laws.

“It’s much easier to cut a number than a person.”

— U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., in an interview after being honored by the Washington Rural Health Association, whom she urged to fight for federal funding by emphasizing the human impact at stake.

“Every time we have a case, it is like an alarm. These contradictions will not go away with one or two cases.”

— Afghanistan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, talking about the Afghan law, criticized by the nation’s Western allies, under which a Muslim has been sentenced to death for converting to another religion.

“We very much hope this is the beginning of the end.”

— Spanish Vice President Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, following the declaration by the Basque separatist group ETA of a permanent cease-fire in its violent, four-decade quest for independence from Spain.