- Marco Polo: They drowned themselves. Hundreds. That was one bend of one river. There are hundreds more who'd rather meet their God than fall to you. The South is not secure.
- Kublai Khan: You're ruining my lunch.
- [last lines]
- Kublai Khan: [sits down on the step] When I was your age I'd seen men die.
- Boy Emperor: Did you kill them?
- Kublai Khan: At the time I'd only killed a rabbit and an antelope.
- Boy Emperor: Did they cry?
- Kublai Khan: The rabbit and the antelope?
- Boy Emperor: The men you watched die.
- Kublai Khan: Some of them, yes.
- Boy Emperor: I've seen bad men die. Am I bad? Is that why you want me to die?
- [running to him]
- Boy Emperor: I don't want to!
- Kublai Khan: It's all right. Sssh. It's all right. Sssh. All right.
- [first lines]
- Boy Emperor: [riding along] Will I stay in your house with Ling?
- Mei Lin: She doesn't live in my house. She has her own with many servants. As a princess should.
- Boy Emperor: Do you still dance with her?
- Mei Lin: Always.
- Boy Emperor: I need to use a tree.
- Mei Lin: To stand or sit?
- Boy Emperor: Stand.
- Mei Lin: Stop.
- Marco Polo: Why?
- Mei Lin: He needs to use a tree.
- Marco Polo: Take him.
- Mei Lin: It's your turn.
- Marco Polo: Not by my count.
- [cut to scene with him sharing a tree with the boy]
- Lotus: You need Nayan.
- Kaidu: I know.
- Lotus: Act like it then. Go and say and do whatever it takes to gain his acceptance. The road back to power is cobbled with indignities. Be they spilt blood of family, scraping of knees, or scrapping of our morals.
- Kaidu: When our days are done, morals are all that stand between reverence and infamy.
- Lotus: Obscurity is a much worse fate after death. One I will not allow to befall you as it did your father.
- Kaidu: Befall me? Or befall you?
- Lotus: We are one and the same, son.
- Ahmad: Even a dog unknowingly craves discipline. And by the time he attains it, he has forgotten how hard he was beaten.
- Marco Polo: I was taken prisoner, too, but you let me live and I've served you well.
- General Qaban: Would it help you if I told you this wasn't wine but the blood of Christ?
- Kaidu: All the more reason for me to respectfully abstain.
- General Qaban: It is difficult for the faithless to understand the faithful.
- Kaidu: I have faith, Nayan. In the sun, in the sky, in the animals I roast. My children.
- General Qaban: And who do you think created all those things you speak of?
- Kaidu: Not a man who claims his father rules from a palace in the sky, and whose brother is a holy ghost.
- General Qaban: You've read the scriptures. What else do you know?
- Kaidu: My father told me you can't get anything unless you ask for it.
- General Qaban: Wise.