what are intellectual property implications for putting together a book of Obama's quotations

The quick answer is that it is generally OK to use a simple line or two of person without infringing on copyright as phrases, slogans and the like do not normally get copyright protection. What we are talking about is 'fair use' and I would recommend that you Google the subject area. However, in brief you can use quotes from others, even brief snippets from copyrighted works provided that you provide full credit for the reference, including the page number. Wrap it in quptation marks and add a footnote with the author's name, title of the publication, date of publication and page that it was extracted from.

Don't quote entire pages,just use a line or two and you should be okay. If you are going through a publisher, the publisher will likely examine your use and quotation of the quotes. If you are doing it yourself, then you should do some research on quotation books and "fair use"

To reiterate Oscar's answer, you should be OK under the doctrine of "fair use." Whenever quoting someone without their consent, you are "technically" infringing, but the doctrine of fair use says if the infringement is so minor, it will be forgiven. Without getting into the details of fair use (that could take thousands of pages), the safest practice is to use short excerpts, quotation marks, and footnotes.

Furthermore, if you could get President Obama's express permission to use these quotes, then you would not have any issues (har har).

**This post does not constitute legal advice, nor does it create any attorney-client relationship between Sadiq Ansari and any other individual or entity.**