Kage Baker Quotes

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 on your head, made you see in a flash that the warnings hadn’t been unfair or mean-spirited or blind, they’d been right? All along your elders had been trying to tell you about the black joke that is life, trying to help you and save you from pain. But you insisted on running straight into the trap, mocking them as you ran, to the agony that was irreversible and permanent, with no one to blame, finally, but yourself.
It’s not good to see yourself in the mirror then.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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, in fact he'll cry if he's forced to taste it. You see what I mean?
But, listen, Joseph. A child is easy to control. Keep him happy, and he'll believe what he's told to believe.