- Jake Bohm: In spite of all our communication technology, no invention is as effective as the sound of the human voice. When we hear the human voice, we instinctively want to listen in hopes of understanding it. Even when the speaker is searching for the right words to say. Even when all we hear is yelling, or crying, or singing. That's because the human voice resonates differently from anything else in the world. That's why we can hear a singer's voice over the sound of a full orchestra. We will always hear that singer, no matter what else surrounds it.
- [first lines]
- Jake Bohm: [narrating] The first transatlantic telegraph cable was made of 340,500 miles of copper and iron wire, designed to stretch 2,876.95 miles along the ocean floor. Once the cable was in place, you could use electrical impulses and signal code to send any message you wanted to the other side of the world. Human beings are hard-wired with the impulses to share our ideas, and the desire to know we've been heard. It's all part of our need for community. That's why we're constantly sending out signals and signs. And why we look for them from other people. We're always waiting for messages. Hoping for connection. And if we haven't received a message, that doesn't always mean it hasn't been sent to us. Sometimes, it means we haven't been listening hard enough.
- Sullivan: That's what happens when you include the nationals.
- Abdul Kozari: *Include* them? They *live* here! *We* live here! We include *you*! Get it? Then let me break it down for you, brother. Iraqis have been here forever. Since Mesopotamia. We started our party 9,000 years ago. We have been around almost as long as, uh, as long as The Simpsons.
- [last lines]
- Martin Bohm: [reading the inscription on his wife's ring] "One plus one equals three."
- Jeweler: Sir? Do you still want this ring?
- Martin Bohm: Yes. Please.
- Abdul Kozari: [practicing his Chris Rock comedy material in Iraq] If you ain't never contemplated killing nobody, you ain't never been in love!