Stevie McCord quotes from Madam Secretary

Henry

You know what my dad said to me, the night before I got married? "Marriage is the nicest way to confront your own inadequacies on a daily basis."

Stevie

You should write that in a song.

Stevie

Maybe I'm just being entitled and stupid.

Jason

You and the rest of America.

Elizabeth

[after Stevie describes what a Memorandum of Understanding is] It's nice to know that *one* of my kids listens to me.

Stevie

Actually, I was listening to Russell Jackson.

Stevie

Oh, my god, you already know?

Elizabeth

I don't know.

Stevie

Mom, I don't know how you made it twenty years in the CIA with that lousy poker face.

Jareth

Do you want me to be honest with you or not?

Stevie

Of course. Just not after withholding your true feelings when we're making a decision and then getting all pissed off at me about how miserable I've made you because of, I don't know, my family's oppressive dynastic thumb!

Stevie

Why are you being so weird?

Jareth

Maybe it's just disconcerting to be under the thumb of a political dynasty when you've been disinherited by your own family.

Elizabeth

Well, I think I found my exit plan.

Stevie

Yeah, you should totally write a memoir.

Elizabeth

No. Retiring on a farm. Raising animals, growing our own food.

Stevie

Mom, you do realize we already lived on a farm, right?

Stevie

Do you want a drink?

Dmitri

Um, no, I don't. Just a club soda.

Stevie

A Russian who doesn't drink?

Dmitri

Yeah. That's, uh, that's why they kicked me out.

Stevie

I'm not gonna lie, it's, it's pretty stressful. Because -- here's the point of this meeting -- Mom is not helping.

Let me guess. She resents having the party, so she's doing that thing where she doesn't really engage and kind of makes you feel like a sellout for even being involved.

Stevie

Exactly.

Elizabeth

And he thinks that, just because you're a woman, of course you'd *want* to plan a party.

Stevie

I think it's more that you just can't fire me.

Elizabeth

And you're okay with this?

Stevie

Yeah. Absolutely.

My God, it's like a hostage video.

Dmitri

I'm so sorry, Stevie.

Stevie

No, no, I am. I didn't mean to get you...exiled or whatever.

Dmitri

It's okay. Exile is a very Russian thing. It's like a rite of passage.

Jason

How do I make the pain go away?

Stevie

You kinda don't. You just gotta wallow in it for as long as it takes.

Jason

Well, this sucks.

Stevie

What do you think?

Well, of course she offered you the job. You're a hot ticket. You have an inside track to the White House not to mention a direct line to your mother. This town will take connections over anything else.

Elizabeth

If you want to make things better for the next generation, get rid of this notion that we're supposed to be invisible and self-effacing.

Stevie

I don't want to be invisible. I just want to be worthy of the people who came before me.