President Hu Jintao on the difficulty of getting train tickets over the Lunar New Year:
"The Ministry of Railways must use their brains, study and take numerous measures to benefit the people and publicise them to lessen contradictions, ensuring the Spring Festival mission is completed smoothly."
Dong Junming, a Shanghai-based lawyer, on why his clients accepted compensation from Sanlu for the death of their son during the tainted milk scandal:
"I don’t think they care about the exact amount, but they just want it to end. They are tired of being stuck in this unbearable pain."
A migrant worker on trying to get backpay from his former employer before the Lunar New Year:
"We are aware of our rights, but we don’t have enough time to go to court. We just want to get paid and go home."
Zhang Jianhua, head of research at the central bank, on claims that China’s high saving rate helped cause the global financial crisis:
"The ‘China-responsible theory’ is an attempt by major western economies to find an excuse for their own policy and regulatory failures."
Gambling researcher Desmond Lam on how much public money government officials have squandered at casinos in Macau:
"I doubt even the Chinese government knows. The figure is likely to be … at least in the hundreds of millions so far."