- Storyteller: You begin at the beginning, go on until the end, and then stop. Just make sure he doesn't know what will happen next.
- Sultan Schariar: Look into my eyes. What do you see, Scheherezade?
- Scheherezade: Me. Looking at you, my love.
- Storyteller: Here again, milady?
- Scheherezade: These people sit for hours, just listening.
- Scheherezade: It's a miracle.
- Storyteller: People need stories, more than bread, itself.
- Storyteller: They teach us how to live, and why.
- Sultan Schariar: You saved me. Why did you do it?
- Scheherezade: Because I loved you.
- Sultan Schariar: Is that the real reason?
- Scheherezade: [She smiles] It'll have to do, until...
- [Schariar kisses her]
- Scheherezade: A master storyteller once told me the audience must be hooked in the first moments, otherwise you've lost them.
- Scheherezade: Is this the time for stories?
- Storyteller: It's the perfect time! Stories show us how to win, and in your case: defeat death.
- Scheherezade: He said the world was an inferno full of darkness and evil, and that there were only two ways of dealing with it. The first was easy and wrong: to accept it and become part of it. The second way was harder and right: you fight it, and recognize those who aren't evil, and help them endure.
- Scheherezade: [narrating] The trial of Jerome Gribben was the social event of the season. The judge in the case was the venerable Judge Zadic. Judge Zadic was totally incompetent but being a Judge nobody had noticed.
- Scheherezade: [narrating] Feed a grub royal jelly and he will turn into an Emperor Butterfly in an instant.
- Aladdin: [making a wish] How about some sort of flying machine?
- Genie of the Lamp: Flying machine? So we could fly around the world? And have drinks? And people could serve us peanuts? You'd better stick with the money.
- Aladdin: Are you like the Genie of the Ring?
- Genie of the Lamp: Like the Genie of the Ring?... I, who opposed the will of Heaven? NEVER!
- Aladdin: So you're not related then?
- Genie of the Lamp: No! Ohhh, I don't know... the tests were inconclusive...
- Buddhist Monk: You win. You win by losing.
- Scheherezade: [narrating] The storyteller always said, "Stories can save us." I guess what he meant was... they can save us! If we use our imagination.
- Prince Ahmed: [On being asked to shoot an apple from a boy's head while blindfolded] I cannot do it.
- Buddhist Monk: The prize is worth it.
- Prince Ahmed: Not for the boy...!
- Genie of the Lamp: [Making Aladdin's Palace] Ahhh, it is my best work since the Taj Mahal. Well, mortals- where are my compliments?
- Aladdin: Who are you?
- Genie of the Lamp: Who am I? Who am I? I am the Lamp Genie... THE Lamp Genie. Wishes, dreams, power, premature and violent death... ohhh, scratch the last one.
- Princess Zobiede's father: It is an insult to my daughter and worse, to me! You stink!
- Suitor: So would you, your highness, if you spent the evening in the privy.
- Princess Zobeide: Aladdin, you're everything a prince should be! But... your mother...
- Aladdin: [hurriedly] She's what they call an... eccentric.
- Sultan Schariar: Is that the end of the story?
- Scheherezade: [hastily] No, no...! At the wedding, there was an important guest...
- [She sees a silhouette of a bowing servant, thinking quickly]
- Scheherezade: ... a hunchback. His name was... Bacbac.
- Demon's Wife: And now, you must make love to me. If you don't, I'll scream, and my husband will rip your head off.
- Genie of the Ring: I, I, I! Always about you! What about me? 'Get me out of here', 'Take me home', 'Put me out - I'm on fire'. Haven't you ever heard the magic word 'please'?
- Genie of the Ring: What color was my smoke? If it was blue, that means I am sanguine and melancholy; that means I need more 'me-time'.
- Scheherezade: [Schariar has drawn a sword and hacked the pillows to shreds around her] Are you all right? Can I do anything for you?
- Sultan Schariar: I just missed *killing* you, and you ask if there's anything you can do for *me*?
- Young Boy: [to Scheherazade] You're quite good at telling stories.
- Sultan Schariar: If I marry, my wife should be executed!
- Ja'Far: Well, I'm sure we've all felt that way from time to time, sahidi.
- Scheherezade: These people sit for hours - just listening. It's a miracle!
- Storyteller: People need stories more than bread itself. They tell us how to live, and why.