Quotes by Kage Baker

“Like children, they’re bored by complicated things. More than bored: they feel threatened. Give a child mashed potatoes and butter, and he’s happy. He doesn’t want to try the rich sauce with capers...”

“Has there ever been a revolution that produced something better than what it overthrew? The only thing people learn from being oppressed is how to oppress others!”

“When you hear a story, do you believe only the nice parts? Truth isn’t like a baked fish, where you can eat the flesh and leave the bones and skin. You have to eat it all.”

“The awful bottom line, of course, is that if you’re going to rule the world, you have to have absolute power, and everybody knows what absolute power does.”

“True believers aren’t real receptive to the idea that what they’re telling you is just mythology.”

“When you laugh at something, you don’t fear it anymore.”

“The same intact culture that made them good businessmen also made many of them lousy parents.”

“I’ve been in the entertainment industry ever since, in one capacity or another. It’s better than the Inquisition. Usually.”

“Faith and its attendant rituals sound like a good deal, the whole eternal salvation thing, but inevitably they lead to fear, oppression, the rack and flames.”

“Ah, Los Angeles. One disaster after another, always has been.”

“I looked up at several pockmarks in the nearest wall; if they weren’t bullet holes, the place had damned big hailstones.”

“Sight-seeing is the art of disappointment, I quoted.”

“I had a productive day, without the distraction of conversation.”

“Did you know what would happen next? Did you know and sit there like God, silent, remorseless, useless?”

“Do you remember that terrible moment, señors, when the self-righteousness of your youth died? When all the stern warnings of your elders, ignored until the consequences abruptly came crashing down ...”

“His nation of liberty was founded on the backs of Negro slaves and at the cost of exterminating the aborigines. As far as I can tell, the Yankee’s idea of freedom is his right to carry a pistol wit...”

“Privilege tends to soften the brain, or so I’ve observed.”

“Religion has its place, certainly, in reinforcing ethical behavior amongst the masses, but any sufficiently enlightened secular laws will have the same effect. After all, most of the creeds of the ...”

“A missionary may persuade a painted savage to worship a cross rather than an idol; but he will not make laws that send that savage’s children to school, where they might learn to make the desert th...”