Something like:
PHP Code:
$result = mysql_query($query);
$count=0;//initialise a variable to count the results
while ($item = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
$count++;//increment the counter each time
if ($count % 2) $left .= <div class="item">.$item['author'].$item['quote']</div>; //if not exactly divisble by 2 must be odd, so left column
//wrap author and quote in other tags as required....
else $right .= <div class="item">.$item['author'].$item['quote']</div>; //otherwise even, so right column
}
would work.