(FORTUNE Magazine) – -- PETE WILLIAMS, 36, spokesman for Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney, on the state's love affair with ranching: ''There are a lot of sacred cows in Wyoming, and cows are one of them.''

| -- ANDREW J. TAKACS, 55, vice president of Whirlpool, on the new plant-closing notification law: ''We're grossly disappointed and feel it's a giant step backward for the whole business and economic system. It's another hit in the chops.''

-- MARIO CUOMO, 56, governor of New York, explaining why the state's agreement with Long Island Lighting Co. to abandon the Shoreham nuclear reactor must include a rate increase: ''Everybody wants a marriage with no misunderstandings, everybody wants a job with all promotions and no perspiration. I can't deliver it.''