Tyrant Quotes
I've spent my whole life in this palace watching men destroy this country, on after another. Dismissing women, covering us up like we're the thing to be afraid of.
Leila
Women suffer. We mourn our dead. We just don't take the whole world down with us when we do.
Leila
Being a president turns everything into your fault, your problem. Same as being a parent. The child blames you for whatever goes wrong, even the things you can't control.
Jamal
Leila: Americans do some things right.
Cogswell: That's right. America would make a great ally because we're great at barbecue.
When 90% of the wealth is controlled by 10% of the population, and you add to that cronyism, corruption, political repression, pretty soon people will get desperate. And when people are desperate, they do desperate things.
Fauzi
Ahmed: You haven't found God. You found politics.
Leila: Oh, Ahmed. God is politics.
I've been praying for this. But between you and me...it might have been easier...my brother...if you had died.
Barry [to Jamal]
I'm tired of apologizing for sometimes thinking I might be more than a wife and a mother.
Leila
But you know what's funny? That I should even have to answer that. Like it's some kind of a crime for a woman to think about herself.
Leila [to Ahmed]
Are you truly committed to democracy in Abuddin, whatever outcome it produces? Or will America be seen by the whole world as only having supported me?
Barry [to Lea Exley]
Ru'a: I'm just not sure about this turn the other cheek thing. Don't say anything to your dad. I mean, I'm still angry. I don't know. Can you pretend to forgive?
Sammy: You don't pretend. You force yourself until it becomes the truth.
I lived on the sidelines for twenty years, Bassam. Watching and nodding while other people made mistakes. I want to be Foreign Secretary, the first woman foreign secretary of an Arab nation.
Leila
