I believe he did day something along those lines, although I can't point you to where he said it.

But don't misunderstand what he said. PageRank is used for rankings, and always was. It isn't anywhere near as important as some other factors, but don't think it isn't used - it is. Having said that, don't be concerned with it either. Do the important things (inbound links with targeted link texts) and the PageRank will take care of itself.