The most memorable quotes in the Chattanooga Times Free Press for July 20-26.

"People talk about needing a medical home. Well, the [emergency department] is like the front porch of the medical home. We'll always leave the light on for you."

-- Sudave Mendiratta, president of the Tennessee College of Emergency Physicians and an emergency physician at Erlanger, on new study suggesting hospital emergency room usage has risen under the Affordable Care Act

"Both of these men are formidable opponents; no matter which one we go up against, it's going to be a handful."

-- Dr. Mary Headrick, Democratic candidate for the 3rd Congressional District, at a forum with Republican candidates Chuck Fleischmann and Weston Wamp

"It's a peaceful way to express myself on paper. It's a calming effect in a place that's so violent."

-- Hamilton County Jail inmate Christopher Wehunt, awaiting trial on charges of felony murder and aggravated arson, about the Mark Making art program at the jail

"We're not the bad guy and the court's not the bad guy. We're doing the best that we can to ensure that child gets a good education. When you see a person who hasn't gotten a good education, we're all paying for it."

-- Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Rick Smith on a push for schools and Juvenile Court to cooperate more closely to reduce truancy

"They're throwing a monkey wrench into their own Medicaid program so they can demonize the federal government. People in dire need of medical care are being sacrificed."

-- Sam Brooke, staff attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which partnered with two other groups to file a class action lawsuit against TennCare over delays in covering poor Tennesseans