Kage Baker Quotes

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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.

Kage Baker
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 world have essentially the same purpose, have they not? To enjoin men to be what we call moral, which is to say civilized. A civilized man obey the rule of law, he acknowledges that he must not injure his neighbors, and if injured by them, he must appeal to law for satisfaction rather than indulge in burning their houses over their heads as they sleep. Civilization is the ideal for which we strive, with so little perceptible success; yet we do succeed, in inches and over years.

Kage Baker
Sight-seeing is the art of disappointment, I quoted.

Kage Baker
Very shortly the temple was once again a wonder of the world, and the Ephesian Church settled down to a long reign marked only by the usual bitter quarrels, heresies, and internal dissent through which all major faiths struggle.
Any religion begins in a moment of transforming truth. That moment quickly shatters into falsehood and shame and stagecraft, bitter comedy, sometimes murder. Thieves catch hold of any chance for power. The early years of a faith are best not too closely examined by its faithful.

Kage Baker
Any brute will demand his right to be a law unto himself, beating his wife and his children as he pleases, and defend that right with his father's rifle and think himself a patriot.

Kage Baker
With the invention of printing, mass standardized culture had become possible.
With the inventions of photography and then cinema, the standardization of popular culture began to progress geometrically and its rate of change slowed down.
In addition, the complete documentation of daily life made possible by these technological advances presented the mass of humanity, for the first time in history, with a mirror in which to regard itself. Less and less had it been able to look away, as its own image became more detailed and perfect, especially with the burden of information that became available at the end of the twentieth century.
What this meant, in practical terms, was that retro was the only fashion.

Kage Baker
That wasn't very godly, Alec calls up to him.
And what has God to do with me? Nicholas shouts back. No voices speak to me out of any burning bush. No word at all. Hideous vacancy, monstrous indifference, and a senseless universe!
Well, says Alec cautiously, I would think that was a good thing. Shouldn't you have grown out of this by now? What do you want meaning in the universe for, anyway? Nothing means anything! We're just here to go along for the adventure.

Kage Baker
People who like to fume about the manner in which Disney changed beloved classics are often ignorant of history, not to mention the realities of show business.

Kage Baker
Romantic Orientalism was fascinated by the color and excitement of a powerful culture, and nearly always approached its subject with love.

Kage Baker
In 1921, Harry Houdini started his own film company called - wait for it - the Houdini Picture Corporation.

Kage Baker
The 1910 Edison film of Frankenstein was itself a dead thing revived by technology.

Kage Baker
If you want to see what stage comedians did to get laffs a century ago, watch the 1910 'Wizard of Oz.' I hope you have a high tolerance for pratfalls.

Kage Baker
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.

Kage Baker
Smashing things is the violent way stupid mortal monkeys solve their problems.

Kage Baker
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!

Kage Baker
Terrorism was too tame for the Scots: they used lawyers.

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

Kage Baker
Edward has a purpose for us. Ruling the world, I assume.
He can't, says Alec, aghast. That's what villains do!

Kage Baker
How, in this day and age, can any one of you claim to be better than your fellow human beings?
Because we are, said Marilyn Deighton-True with a shrug. Face reality, Giles, or it will face you. You can spout all the socialiste nouveau crap you like, but it simply doesn't apply to a meritocracy.

Kage Baker
Just when I thought things couldn't get any stranger, I was proven wrong.

Kage Baker
This is insane, she said. Why would mortals make it so difficult to get two little glasses of white wine?
Human nature, my love. Edward grinned and set his knee against hers under the tablecloth. The desire of a few to dictate morality to the whole. And why do the masses submit willingly? Apathy. Or, perhaps, the opportunity to experience the thrill of the forbidden!

Kage Baker
Isn't that a little hard on him? You're not only making him feel bad about something he didn't do, you're making him feel bad about something that didn't even shracking happen.
I believe churches used to call it original sin, Rutherford agreed, looking crafty. But what does it matter, if it serves to make him a better man?

Kage Baker
Sex, Kiu said thoughtfully. And Fear. Get that big old devil behind them with a stick, and my radiant beauty in front of them, and they'll run right off a cliff, if I ask.
I'm a firm believer in Guilt, personally, said Labienus.
Works well on individuals, Kiu conceded.
Nothing like it for subtle motivation. Plant it deeply enough into a mortal's psyche and it twists them endlessly. Labienus sighed. Get it in there young enough and it'll do all your work for you. You'll have only to prod the mortal along with a suggestion now and then.

Kage Baker
One should always avoid unnecessary unhappiness. Especially if one is an immortal. They taught us that in school.

Kage Baker
No nation, creed, or race was any better or worse than another; all were flawed, all were equally doomed to suffering, mostly because they couldn't see that they were all alike. Mortals might have been contemptible, true, but not evil entirely. They did enjoy killing one another and frequently came up with ingenious excuses for doing so on a large scale—religions, economic theories, ethnic pride—but we couldn't condemn them for it, as it was in their moral natures and they were too stupid to know any better.

Kage Baker
The Rogue Cyborg is doing serious Rogue Cyborg stuff. He's crouched before a data terminal as though it were an ancient altar, and from the look on his face what he's praying for is desperate and bloody revenge.

Kage Baker
Imagine being told that it hadn't mattered whether the Christians or the Moors got Spain! I can still remember my shock. I got over it fairly quickly, though, because by that time I had learned enough history to know that in the long run it never mattered a damn where any particular race of people planted its collective ass.

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

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

Kage Baker
When will you stop this metaphysical nonsense? said Edward wearily. But I suppose you've no other way to look at the matter, born as you were in an age of superstitious piety.

Kage Baker