Friday September 15 7:48 AM ET

Notable Quotes

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They really said it -- notable quotes from the news:

``It was unsavory in a sense that you had to say these things, and it was uncomfortable for me. But that was the character and, if I didn't do it as fully as I thought it should be done, there'd be no point in doing it.''

-- actor ROBERT DE NIRO, on the difficulty of playing an abusive, racist Navy officer in his latest movie, ``Men of Honor,'' opposite CUBA GOODING JR.

``Al, how long have you been on the road?''

-- ``Late Show'' host DAVID LETTERMAN, when AL GORE told him the extended kiss he gave his wife, Tipper, on stage at the Democratic National Convention last month was ``just a little peck.''

``I am many things. I am an animal. I am a convicted rapist, a hell-raiser, a loving father, a semi-good husband. You don't really know me.''

-- Former boxing champ MIKE TYSON at a news conference where he cursed, jumped on a table, stripped off his shirt, complained about medication hurting his sex life and threatened to put ``a (expletive) bullet'' through the head of rival LENNOX LEWIS.

-- (hmm@hmm.hmm), September 17, 2000