The Week in Words: Waiting to see what the knuckleheads do

"A lot of my contemporaries are feeling the same way, saying, 'Let's just wait and see what these knuckleheads do.' "

- John Odland, CFO, MacMillan-Piper Inc., Seattle, regarding negotiations to avoid the fiscal cliff.

"Without growth it's not going to be possible in the contemporary world to keep practicing."

- Robert E. Booth Jr., partner, 3B Orthopaedics, on the group's move from independent company to part of Aria Health.

"I thought there'd be long lines."

- Vicki Beal, 57 of Malvern, on the comparatively light shopping at King of Prussia Mall on the day after Christmas.

"We kept fighting and fighting, and we secured what we think was a good settlement, given the risks of this litigation."

- Attorney Steve Berman, plaintiff's attorney in the $1B settlement by Toyota over lawsuits against the company for acceleration problems in its vehicles.

"Home sales are recovering now based solely on fundamental demand and favorable affordability conditions."

- Lawrence Yun, chief economist, National Association of Realtors, regarding a report on the highest monthly increase in pending home sales in 21/2 years.

"In keeping with our principles, we have structured this agreement in ways that work to put our customers first and demonstrate that they can count on Toyota to stand behind our vehicles.,"

- Christopher Reynolds, Toyota vice president and general counsel.

"Delaying this doesn't do any good to anybody. We've been dealing with this amount of uncertainty for almost two years now."

- Jeffrey Immelt, CEO, General Electric, on the need for a "grand bargain" on taxes and spending cuts.

"Nobody wants to go over this fiscal cliff. It will damage our economy. It will hurt every taxpayer. It will be the largest tax increase in history, affect everybody. And anyone who's watching who thinks, 'oh, this isn't going to impact me,' you will find out that it will."

- Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.).