The Best Quotes Of 2000 Quote Unquote
The Sunday Age
Sunday December 31, 2000
"They never even talked about the enemy during the war like that. I am shocked, appalled and saddened."
- Kevan Gosper responds to a newspaper headline calling him a 'Greedy Obstinate Selfish Pompous Egotistical Reptile', after his 11-year-old daughter Sophie was the first Australian to run with the Olympic torch in Greece.
"The USA country doesn't have a heart, they have cold concrete. I'm never coming back to this place, it's too dirty and too communist. New York is a dirty, bad-smelling place - but it's good for shopping."
- Damir Dokic after being ejected from the US Open.
"This is a fascist country and you are under the control of Bill Clinton, who gets women to do things to him. You are a joke."
- Damir to an American reporter at Wimbledon, where he smashed a reporter's mobile phone.
"Now she is 17 years old she is under my control. When she is 18, 19 or 20 maybe she will be married to a German boy and want to live in Germany. I cannot tell."
- Damir, the romantic.
"I am stunned. The allegations are completely without substance."
- Hansie Cronje, when the Indian bookie scandal first broke.
"You cannot question Hansie's integrity."
- Ali Bacher, South African cricket boss.
"I have not been entirely honest with you."
- Cronje begins his confession to Ali Bacher.
"I don't know of any England player who could fix a light bulb, never mind a match."
- England fast bowler Darren Gough.
"I don't care if I have to swim nude."
- Grant Hackett puts the bodysuit controversy into perspective.
"It's a clean sport. We have no drug problems."
- Rudolf Baumann, president of the International Dance Sport Federation, as part of the application to have ballroom dancing included in future Olympic Games.
"Everyone thinks we earn a lot of prizemoney but they forget about taxes which take away a lot of it, sometimes even as much as half."
- Poor little rich girl Martina Hingis, who won $5.06 million in prizemoney in 1999, and earned an estimated three times that amount in sponsorships and endorsements. What could that nasty tax man be thinking of?
"She was talking dirty to me on the phone and I reciprocated."
- Shane Warne on those phone calls to a British nurse.
"It was probably the wrong thing to do but I thought it was a private matter. I didn't think it was going to become public and now that it has become public I suppose it's a mistake."
- Warne again.
"Dad normally likes to have a beer or two before the game to settle his nerves when one of us plays but now with both of us playing in one game I reckon he'll be paralytic by kick-off."
- Penrith hard man Mark Geyer before facing brother (and Melbourne Storm star) Matt for the first time in an NRL contest.
"There's not much you can do about it. It's a bit hard to confiscate someone's voice."
- NRL football director Graham Annesley following an incident at Wollongong where a spectator mimicking the half-time siren brought an end to the first half 30 seconds early.
"I've been very influential in making Cathy into an icon, who is loved by all Australians. There are lots of things I could have revealed about Cathy that wouldn't make her so popular ... I have never turned away from Cathy, no matter how fat she was in 1997, or even 1998."
- Former lover and manager Nick Bideau on Cathy Freeman.
"I'm like the most expensive item on a gourmet menu. People can look, then wonder about the taste and sensuous delights of such a dish, but when it comes down to it, they simply can't afford such an expensive luxury."
- Another great tennis mind, Anna Kournikova.
"This job takes you to murky places that you never thought you would visit."
- St Kilda coach Tim Watson, still looking for a win leading up to round six. The bad news for Tim was that his places only got murkier.
"We are not a football club, we are a disgrace. I am blaming every one of you. I can't give any more, so I quit. I have had the guts to quit. Some of you might want to quit as well."
- Outgoing general manager of the Carlton Soccer Club, Lou Sticca, to his players.
"The winner is the person to touch the wall first."
- ABC radio's Mark Stockwell, shedding some light on the arcane world of swimming races.
"I have never seen a better performance."
- 83-year-old racing legend George Hanlon gives his rating of Sunline's seven-length victory in the Cox Plate.
"I just gathered my team together because they didn't know that a seagull hit Mark Johnson."
- Kevin Sheedy, after an angry gesture to West Coast's Mitchell White.
"They're like a bag of prawns on a hot day. They don't travel too well."
- Robert Allenby gives his opinion of US golfers.
BRIEFLY ...
"Tiger Woods."
- Stuart Appleby's response when asked at a PGA event what he would need to shoot in order to win the tournament.
"Kelvin Templeton."
- Andrew Wills' response when doctors, checking for concussion, asked him who the Western Bulldogs' best player was against Carlton.
"SuperCaleyGoBallisticCelticAreAtrocious."
- Surely the greatest headline of all time. London's Sun newspaper came up with this corker after Inverness Caledonian Thistle's win over Celtic.
"A mole rodel."
- AOC boss Cohn Joates' assessment of Cathy Freeman.
"The Drunk Gay Velodrome."
- 2UE commentator Murray Shaw makes a mess of the Dunc Gray Velodrome.
"It's like watching television with a faulty remote control."
- John Lang, coach of NRL team the Sharks, on coaching.
"The last century was mine. Tiger can have this one."
- Jack Nicklaus, after playing his 44th and last US Open.
-- Media Giants
© 2000 The Sunday Age