OKLAHOMA CITY: AFTER THE BOMB : Voices from Home

“He spoke broken English. It was a foreign name. He said he was from Colorado. He drove a Ryder truck.”

Manager at the Great Western Motel in Junction City, Kan.

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“It’s like trying to dismantle a mountain with a five-gallon bucket.”

OKLAHOMA GOVERNOR FRANK KEATING. Describing the removal of debris in the search for survivors and victims.

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“Rarely do we go out of life doing what we want. She gave her life doing what she wanted to do. I wish I had half the compassion and heart that she had.”

FRED ANDERSON. Husband of nurse Rebecca Anderson, who was killed while trying to help in rescue efforts.

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“I maintain an enormous amount of hope for the children with traumatic brain injuries until they prove me wrong, and that can take upwards of months or even longer than that before you know.”

DR. MORRIS GESSOUROUN. Head of pediatric intensive care unit at Oklahoma City’s Children’s Hospital.

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“This incident wasn’t caused by people who think government’s too big or we need to cut the size of government. So let’s keep this above partisanship.”

SEN. DON NICKLES (R-Okla.)

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“Swift, sure justice is the most important thing we can do. And we don’t need an O.J. trial. Now, everybody that’s got a TV camera is going to want to be in the courtroom, drag it on for eight months, go through six juries, exhaust the judge, and if we have a female prosecutor, have her made over eight times--nothing that has to do anything with justice. . . . These folks need to be tried, sentenced and executed pretty fast, and that kind of clears your head.”

ROSS PEROT. Asked for his views on the Oklahoma investigation at the National Press Club in Washington