- [first lines]
- Rodrigo Borgia: These poisons made my soul feel so lofty. Yet in truth they divided my soul from my flesh and my brain!
- [breaking vials]
- Rodrigo Borgia: The three must rejoin like the Trinity. I will endure. I will renew myself. We are the Vicar of Christ.
- Cesare Borgia: When I learned the identity of the assailant, I found him. He happened to be French. And I looked him in the eye and I stuck him with my dagger. I twisted the blade until his insides bled. He whimpered and collapsed and I had won. The world minus another devil. Who here knows such victory?
- King Charles VIII: Some of us do.
- Cesare Borgia: And how does it feel?
- King Charles VIII: Triumphant.
- Cesare Borgia: How else?
- King Charles VIII: Blissful.
- Cesare Borgia: How else?
- King Charles VIII: Frightening.
- Cesare Borgia: Because the only way to rid the world of evil is by putting yourself in its path. Exposing your own insides. Calm are the complacent, never rising from their chairs. Calm are the judgmental, never putting themselves at risk. But show me a man who feels fright and I'll show you a man with values and loved ones. With his heart's blood filling his muscles. Because he is willing to stake his last breath on something that is more than nothing. I have taken a life. I have created a son. I have been in love. Each time I was afraid. Those who do not know such fear do not know courage.
- Alessandro Farnese: You asked me to teach you self-defense, but women shouldn't fight like men.
- Giulia Farnese: Then women should not be hit by men.
- Queen Anne: Our son, Charles Orlando, died four months ago. He was three years old. Our only issue.
- Cesare Borgia: How cruel to lose a child.
- Queen Anne: Yet, I did not cry. Such weakness, such indulgence never felt proper for someone of my birth. During my son's funeral cortege I followed his tiny body as we approached the Cathedrale de Saint Martin. Passing my subjects who lined the streets, I remained as always, stoic. And then Cardinal Briconnet whispered: Your Highness, you do not need your people's respect because you have their love. And I looked upon the mourners and I saw all of France bereaved. I touched my boy's hand and I wept every tear I have ever withheld. What my people showed me, was true love.
- Queen Anne: You do not speak of love, Cesare Borgia. You speak of romance. Romance is for young girls.
- Cesare Borgia: I am a man.
- King Charles VIII: Ah, so you really speak of lust.
- King Charles VIII: I ask you to contemplate the passion you have for Carlotta. Is it love or is it obsession?
- Cesare Borgia: Are they different?
- Cesare Borgia: [while the King is deathly ill] You cry.
- Agapito Geraldini: In bitterness, there is security. When one goes, so does the other.
- King Louis: When one is royalty, appearance is supreme. As King I can do anything my subjects would allow.
- [last lines]
- Rafaele Riario-Sansoni: [entering] Holiness. In gratitude for my promotion, and in celebration of your recovery, I present you with this exquisite Crucifix.
- [men bring in a large figure]
- Rodrigo Borgia: Who did this? Which genius?
- Rafaele Riario-Sansoni: He waits outside.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Bring him to us.
- Francesc Gacet: Buonarroti.
- Rafaele Riario-Sansoni: I present you the artist, Michelangelo Buonarroti, formerly of Florence.
- Rodrigo Borgia: How did you create something so divine?
- Michelangelo Buonarroti: With my hands, Good Father.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Many men work with their hands. Few connect to the eternal.
- Michelangelo Buonarroti: We are so distant from Christ now. In 1500 years He has become an idea alone. I need to know the Jesus who was also flesh. He had a head and a heart, a penis and an arse. His tongue could taste grapes and his teeth could ache. His hands may have felt callous when they caressed another skin. God created the human body, Good Father. We are duty-bound to celebrate such an extraordinary creation.
- Rodrigo Borgia: Yes. Yes. We count on Gracious God, ever old, ever new. You shall design our tomb.
- Alfonso di Calabria: [grabbing her arm] Your eyes are so pretty.
- Sancia Squillace: [demuring] Your Highness
- Alfonso di Calabria: People praise Lucrezia's beauty, yet here you are. Standing right next to her. The eyes of Cleopatra.
- Sancia Squillace: Yes, Highness. My suitors go on endlessly about my eyes. But it's all they ever notice. Me? I have yet to see a pair of eyes which make me blink.