Happy Birthday, G.R.

Shaken to the core by the previous episode, Lawrence decides to retreat to British headquarters. Before leaving, he confides in Ali and, much like a trans person might, bemoans the limitations and consequences of his current body. Lawrence: "I've come to the end of myself, I suppose." Ali: "And the end of the Arab Revolt?" Lawrence: "I'm not the Arab Revolt, Ali. I'm not even Arab." Ali: "A man can be whatever he wants. You said." Lawrence: "I'm sorry. I thought it was true." Ali: "You proved it!" "Look, Ali," says Lawrence, pinching his pale flesh. "Look. That's me. ... That's me. And there's nothing I can do about it." Ali: "A man can do whatever he wants. You said." "He can. But he can't want what he wants." Lawrence wistfully looks at his milky flesh again. "This is the stuff that decides what he wants."

Bentley, on a meeting between Lawrence and Allenby] Mr. Dryden: Well, I'll tell you. It's a little clash of temperament that's going on in there. Inevitably, one of them's half-mad...and the other, wholly unscrupulous.

o Bentley, on a meeting between Lawrence and Allenby] Mr. Dryden: Well, I'll tell you. It's a little clash of temperament that's going on in there. Inevitably, one of them's half-mad...and the other, wholly unscrupulous.

Mr. Dryden: If we've told lies, you've told half-lies and a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth, but a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it. T.E. Lawrence: The truth is I'm an ordinary man. You might have told me that, Dryden, and I want an ordinary job, sir. That's my reason for resigning. It's personal.

Mr. Dryden: Well, now. Mr Sykes is an English civil servant. Monsieur Picot is a French civil servant. Mr Sykes and Monsieur Picot met and they agreed that after the war, France and England would share the Turkish Empire, including Arabia. They signed an agreement, not a treaty, sir. An agreement to that effect. T.E. Lawrence: There may be honor among thieves, but there's none in politicians.

Feisal[edit] I think you are another of these desert-loving English: Doughty, Stanhope, Gordon of Khartoum. No Arab loves the desert. We love water and green trees, there is nothing in the desert. No man needs nothing. Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men – courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men – mistrust and caution. It must be so.

Lawrence: Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.

Dryden: When we told lies you told half-lies. And a man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it.