"This amendment is blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry."

The Austin Chronicle's "Top 10 Quotes of the Year":

1. "This amendment is blowing smoke to fuel the hell-fire flames of bigotry. When people of my color used to marry someone of Mr. Chisum's color, you'd often find people of my color hanging from a tree. That's what white people back then did to protect marriage."
   
   – State Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, attacks an attempt to introduce a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution.
   
   
2. "Our goal for this process was to create a policy of disablement, not deadly force, for African-Americans. It's not really a new policy, because in reality, white folks already have it."
   
   – Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder on police proposals under the African-American Quality of Life Implementation Plan.
   
   
3. "I'm flattered at the possibility of being the Democratic pallbearer, I mean standard-bearer."
   
   – Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman to the Austin American-Statesman on attempts to get him to run as a Democrat.
   
   
4. "That's just how I roll."
   
   – UT student Laura Ashley Hall, quoted in a police affidavit, on why she allegedly helped accused murderer Colton Pitonyak flee to Mexico
   
   
5. "Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."
   
   – Travis Co. District Attorney Ronnie Earle
   
   
6. "It's not up to the American Cancer Society or Lance Motherfucking Armstrong to tell me how to run my business."
   
   – Bar owner Chip Tait, on proposed anti-smoking legislation.
   
   
7. "She is a very good bowler. For someone her size, she actually gets a lot of action out of the pins."
   
   – Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua B. Bolten, on Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.
   
   
8. "We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery, degradation, and death to the Iraqi people and call it 'bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East.'"
   
   – British playwright Harold Pinter, accepting the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature.
   
   
9. "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention."
   
   – columnist Molly Ivins.
   
   
10. "Adios, mofo."
    
    – Gov. Rick Perry, caught on camera.