‘The gates of hell’ and other quotable quotes from 2013

“You don't do that to me. Saan po kayo kumukuha ng kapal ng mukha? I can buy you, your friends, and this club."

Compressed into a single line of dialogue, three of our choices for quotes of the year can comprise a classic catty put-down in a movie.

Maybe it's because the three different individuals who uttered them – a show host, the President, an actress – were all in apparent fits of pique, for totally different reasons.

Irritation is a common emotion behind some of our quotable quotes of 2013. Others were just clinical but telling declarations of fact, such as Erap's sobering reminder to the public that he is the first ex-convict to become mayor of Manila.

The news media used to be the main arbiter for the quotes that capture the spirit of our times, but no longer in the age of social media. Many of these quotes first found traction on Twitter and Facebook, which put a premium on short bursts of text that can be instantly shared. YouTube enables memorable utterances to be watched ad nauseam even before the news media catches on.

One may wonder why Sen. Miriam Santiago did not make the cut, as she is, of course, always quotable. With her outrageous verbalisms, the queen of one-liners seems consciously aiming to be included in year-end lists like this. We decided to leave her off our list this year, to give others a chance.



Just do a search for the context and origins of these quotes.

— Curated by Andreo Calonzo/HS/BM, GMA News