Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes culled from news reports from across Texas, and beyond.
Republican New York state Sen. Mark J. Grisanti, on the floor of the state senate, as he switched his stance and voted in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage in his state.
I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.
New York state Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx, a Democrat, speaking on the floor of the state senate as he cast his vote against legalizing same-sex marriage in New York.
God, not Albany, has settled the definition of marriage, a long time ago.
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Pastor Lynn Godsey, president of the Hispanic Evangelical Alliance of Dallas-Ft. Worth, leading a group of evangelical pastors who were previously supportive of Gov. Perry but that may turn against him because of his support of legislation that many consider anti-Hispanic.
We would ask Gov. Rick Perry to please stop using these laws for your political agenda, sir. Don’t come after a race. Don’t do it at hurting our families, because you will have to give an account to God.
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Newly crowned Miss USA Alyssa Campanella, in a preliminary interview during last weekend’s pageant.
I was taught evolution in high school. I do believe in it. I’m a huge science geek…I like to believe in the big bang theory and, you know, the evolution of humans throughout time.
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Matt Taibbi, describing the religious right’s and Tea Party’s favorite presidential contender, Michele Bachmann.
Bachmann is a religious zealot whose brain is a raging electrical storm of divine visions and paranoid delusions. She believes that the Chinese are plotting to replace the dollar bill, that light bulbs are killing our dogs and cats, and that God personally chose her to become both an IRS attorney who would spend years hounding taxpayers and a raging anti-tax Tea Party crusader against big government.
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Tea Party speaker Rebecca Forest, complaining at a rally at the Texas Capitol about the difficulty in passing a bill barring so-called “sanctuary cities.”
If you want to know why we can’t pass legislation in Texas, it’s because we have 37, no 36, Hispanics in the Legislature. All of the states that have passed legislation have a handful and I mean literally, some of them have NO Hispanic legislators, well, maybe 3 or 5 or something. So that’s, umm, part of our problem and we need to change those numbers. . . . So the problem is these Hispanic legislators . . . is that it’s too close to them and they, umm. . . simply cannot vote their conscience correctly.
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Stephen K. Bannon, director of the Sarah Palin documentary Undefeated, describing the scene at a theater where his film was screened across the hall from a new gay romance film.
You had your indie-scene, cutting-edge avant garde [types] and the non-avant garde. There was the downtown indie crowd for Weekend and Wall Street guys, former political operatives and Jews for Sarah for Undefeated.
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Texas state Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, on the ongoing battle over state legislation that addresses pat downs at airport security checkpoints.
The first thing I was asked to do was remove the section that refers to private parts.
“The first thing I was asked to do was remove the section that refers to private parts.”
Private parts!
Oh, my, ah do believe I’ve got the vapors!
Pop quiz: In the novel, “Dr. No” by Ian Fleming what “private part” does Honey Rider cover up when she emerges from the surf and is surprised by James Bond?