Quotes
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President Sarkoff : Assassination has always been a legitimate tool of statecraft. Its respectability and public acceptance has varied from civilization to civilization, but its practical application has remained remarkably consistent.
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[ex-President Sarkoff thinks Blake is an assassin]
Blake : I said, I'm not a murderer.
President Sarkoff : I'm grateful for your semantic precision. Political assassination I can... live with. To be murdered would the final, sordid indignity.
[Sarkoff picks up an antique pistol]
President Sarkoff : Now, my educated friend, do you know what this is?
Blake : Uh, it's a projectile weapon.
President Sarkoff : [pointing the gun at Blake] It's called a revolver. Explosive charge here, projectile emerges with great force and considerable accuracy, over short distances anyway. Primitive, but efficient enough for my purposes.
Blake : [urgently] President Sarkoff, I must speak with you! Will you listen to what I have to...
[Sarkoff pulls the trigger, knowing the gun is empty]
President Sarkoff : [lowering the gun] Ex-president.
Blake : I haven't got time for the niceties of this game that you're playing.
President Sarkoff : Just time for a hasty rationalization.
Blake : I just want you to listen.
President Sarkoff : I've wasted my life listening, listening to people who are arrogant, or vacuous, or just plain vicious. I smiled and acquiesced in the face of prejudice and stupidity. I've tolerated mediocrity and accepted the tyranny of second-class minds. But now all that is over. I am ready to die, here among the things I value. I am ready to let you kill me but I am not ready to listen to you justify the act.
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Tarvin : You talk too much.
President Sarkoff : Yes, it's an occupational hazard, I'm afraid.
