Art isn’t just technique, in any culture…it’s also Content. It’s understanding not just How, but also What, to express. - Adam-Troy Castro

Middle management has always favored underlings friendly to middle management. It’s corruption, all right, but of a minor and probably unavoidable sort.

His smile was the wholly unpersuasive kind that only a professional diplomat could carve. Damned if there wasn’t some pretense of compassion in his voice, some veneer of fatherly understanding that gave every word out of his mouth an extra, oily sheen.

Are you refusing a direct order?"
"Tell me to die for no good reason and I'll do more than refuse, I'll shove the order up your ass.