"If today the Middle Ages are retiring into the thick shadows of convents, it is due to triumphant skepticism; and if the epidemic disease of religion no longer appears with the terrible intensity of former times, it is due to the diminution of the political power of the Church."

"The history of many saints, beatified by the church, is repugnant. It shows nothing more than a profound aberration of the human spirit in search of ultra-terrestrial chimeras."

"Religion is a psychic disease of the brain."

"Religious morality shows the original stigmata of authoritarianism precisely because it pretends to be the revelation of divine authority."

"The Bible and morals called Christian are two cadavers."

"How can the idea of a creator be reconciled with the existence of dwarfed and atrophied organs, with anomalies and monstrosities, with the existence of pain, perpetual and universal, with the struggle and the inequalities among human beings?"

"I now inform you that you are too far from reality."

"The information was correct but the interpretations were not. I did my duty up to the last minute."

"They US soldiers] started to commit suicide on the Baghdad walls. We will encourage them to double their suicide attempts."

"The American press is all about lies! All they tell is lies, lies and more lies!"

"Lying is forbidden in Iraq. President Saddam Hussein will tolerate nothing but truthfulness as he is a man of great honour and integrity. Everyone is encouraged to speak freely of the truths evidenced in their eyes and hearts."

"In an age of spin, al-Sahaf offers feeling and authenticity. His message is consistent — unshakeable, in fact, no matter the evidence — but he commands daily attention by his on-the-spot, invective-rich variations on the theme. His lunatic counterfactual art is more appealing than the banal awfulness of the Reliable Sources. He is a Method actor in a production that will close in a couple of days. He stands superior to truth."

"He's my man. He was great. Somebody accused us of hiring him and putting him there. He was a classic."