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— LAPD Chief William Bratton, dismissing speculation he was a candidate for London police chief
"Barack's better half not only has stature but is statuesque. She has coruscating intelligence, beauty, style and -- drumroll, please -- a butt."
— Erin Aubry Kaplan on Michelle Obama
"Long after the courts have struck down Proposition 8, and same-sex marriage prohibitions have rightly joined Jim Crow laws on the ash heap of history, our children will look back with wonder at how it could ever have been otherwise."
— Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky
"Gay marriage? Please."
— Jasmyne Cannick, Black lesbian activist
"If there's a rape kit sitting on a shelf, there's a victim without justice."
— Controller Laura Chick, announcing LAPD backlog of 7,000 untested rape kits
"We must begin by ending our current artifice: we have not enforced our billboard permit program or our billboard ban."
— From Jane Usher's resignation as chairman of the city planning commission
"He had no idea he was being lit from below...I guess they're not very sophisticated."
— Photographer Jill Greenberg, on making John McCain look bad for The Atlantic
"The city of Los Angeles has surrendered its built environment to advertising and sign companies."
— President of Scenic America
"I still have no memory of the trip to Costa Rica or anything that happened."
— Ron Deaton, retiring as head of the Department of Water and Power
"After five years as a commissioner, I have to admit that politics doesn't mix well with my background as a newspaper reporter and editor. A journalist's drive to get the story and, hopefully, to right a wrong is in direct conflict with a City Hall culture of protecting the status quo."
— Bill Boyarsky on his experience as a city ethics commissioner
"Everyone else in the city has to grease the way, usually with campaign contributions, for big zoning and EIR votes. Let the McCourts grease the way, too."
— Boyarsky urging Dodgers owners to pay some cost of stadium shuttle bus.
"I knew that Mr. Wong wanted Evergreen to be happy."
— Former deputy mayor Troy Edwards, testifying at corruption trial of ex-commissioner Leland Wong
"I don't think that marriage and childbirth are black and white. There are certain instances in which you have to do things in reverse order."
— Rep. Linda Sanchez, announcing her pregnancy
"Permission to use the front of our school for the Republican National Convention was not given."
— Principal of Walter Reed Middle School after photo shows up illustrating McCain speech
"While I know that most of you would never believe the horrible tabloid journalism that was exhibited on Fox 11 last week, it has been brought to my attention that a number of people are continuing the gossip and mistruths..."
— Councilwoman Janice Hahn reacting to story that she paid gang members
"Get out of my face."
— Councilman Tony Cardenas to Controller Laura Chick
"Time to take a nap? Or just go home???"
— Text message from inside dragging Obama fundraiser at the Regent Beverly Wilshire
"They paved paradise, and all they've got to show for it is chalupas and discount tube socks."
— Steve Lopez in Wasila, Alaska