The most memorable quotes in the Times Free Press for the week of Oct. 6 -12:

"Look at me, I'm paralyzed for life."

-- Jerry Martin, who testified from an ambulance gurney in Hamilton County Criminal Court last week about the effects of a gunshot wound he suffered on Thanksgiving Day in 2011. A jury on Friday acquitted 45-year-old Kevin Chitty of attempted second-degree murder and aggravated assault charges in connection with the incident

"When I ask women in other countries what they want, they say 'education.' They want the one thing, more than anything else, that will give them a chance to have power and be a voice."

-- Journalist Lisa Ling, who has reported extensively on human rights, in comments to Girls Preparatory School students

"The candy machine is a cafeteria for the rats. And the rats are food for the snakes. Its just the wild, wild West over there for the critters."

-- Cynthia Stanley-Cash, a Brainerd community activist, on the snakes and rats at Brainerd High School