Perspectives

"Twice as many opportunities for business, twice as much prosperity and the biggest expansion of middle-class incomes."
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, issuing an upbeat 20-year prediction in his speech before the U.S. Congress last week

"We will not kneel!"
Sudan's leader Omar al-Bashir, after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant of arrest for crimes against humanity

"Embarrassing to himself as well as to others."
Glenn Selig, publicist for impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, describing the disgraced politician's new tell-all book, due out this fall

"Are there other worlds like ours? This question has come down to us from 100 generations. We get to answer it."
NASA scientist James Fanson, project manager of the new Kepler telescope project, which will spend the next three years looking for Earth-like planets deep in the cosmos

"Every now and then I look at my friends and say, 'Ooh, I wouldn't mind having that iPhone'."
Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft mogul Bill, discussing the fact that Apple gadgets are banned from the couple's mansion

"I promised a lot of people I'd slow down when I turned 80. I wasn't really planning to do it, but because of the economy, I wound up keeping that promise by accident."
Renowned architect Frank Gehry, who has seen several major projects, like the Disney Hall in Los Angeles and Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn, New York, indefinitely suspended