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Kage Baker

71 quotes

“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 (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So, um...are you alone out here?” “I was,” she said.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1952–2010) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 21, “Santa Catalina Island, 1923 AD” (p. 212; during Prohibition)
“Justice doesn’t exist! We did worse things. Nobody deserves to go to that place, Alec said. Anyway, weren’t you Christian types supposed to forgive everybody? I will shed no tears for that bastard’s damnation, said Nicholas stonily. No wonder nobody’s left that believes in your stupid religion, said Alec.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 21, “Santa Catalina Island, 1923 AD” (p. 218)
“That is one dark house your God lives in, man. Alec shook his head. You can keep your Age of Faith. Whyn’t you find somebody to worship who isn’t a shracking psychopath?”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) first seen 1923 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Chapter 21, “Santa Catalina Island, 1923 AD” (p. 227)
“Why did I never understand...” “That it was vanity?” I said. “Mm, but so much worse...Delusion. Because, the thing is—human progress begins, not with one lone man with a weapon, however heroic. Nor with subtle governments, be they never so altruistic. It begins with a man and his wife in bed...and...how could I ever hope to govern humanity, without having been even that human?”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Oh, that’s childish,” says Nicholas in disgust. “Well, so what?” says Alec. “We happen to be children.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Edward has a purpose for us. Ruling the world, I assume.” “He can’t,” says Alec, aghast. “That’s what villains do!”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Edward raises the pointer and places its tip against Alec’s forehead. “What’s the use of having a library in there if you won’t open the books, boy? What’s the good of augmented intelligence if you won’t use it?”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Edward holds up a hand for silence. “If you please, Captain: he’s thinking. Let us savor the exquisite rarity of the moment.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He saw in memory Mendoza’s face, her black eyes sad as she downloaded a chapter on revolutions. Here you go. Great heroes and the things they wrecked. Always easier to destroy something than to create something. It’s harder to plant a garden than to blow up a building, and undoubtedly more boring, but you just might need to do it one day, eh?”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why should we obey you?” Budu asked. “Because I’m, er, omnipotent,” said Alec.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So as we’ve seen, not one faith has ever lived up to its promises. The world has never become a paradise, quite the opposite, in fact: think of the millions upon millions slaughtered, tortured, imprisoned for this great idea, this good news, this revolution. The visionary who works against human nature to impose his—or her—sweeping vision on the world is inevitably its worst enemy. Now, who isn’t? Consider the work of certain individual mortals who set themselves simple tasks. They saw no need to raise armies; they saw no need for revolution or bloodshed; they worked instead for realistic goals with the tools they had. And they succeeded, and their works have been of lasting benefit to humanity.” He erased the board with relish and chalked a new set of names: . “People like these have done more to relieve human misery than any prophet with a manifesto ever will.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth is, Homo sapiens sapiens is pretty much the same the world over, regardless of skin color or technological development. Racists and provincial types have problems with this fact, but it is a fact. All mortals have the same potential, and only chance determines who’s playing a spinet or who’s clubbing dinner to death with a big rock. And, you know what? Mortals adapt to the environment in which they’re placed. Switch babies between savages and technologicals, and nobody notices! I know, because I’ve seen it done. I’ve seen the son of a club-carrying cave dweller fuming because his accounting software wasn’t quite adequate for his needs. All humans have the same brain package.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ah, the immortal ocean. Consider the instructive metaphor: every conceivable terror dwells in her depths; she receives all wreckage, refuse, corruption of every kind, she pulls down into her depths human calamity indescribable; but none of this is any consideration to the sea. Let the screaming mortal passengers fight for room in the lifeboats, as the wreck belches flame and settles below the extinguishing wave; next morning she’ll still be beautiful and serene, her combers no less white, her distances as blue, her seabirds no less graceful as they wheel in the pure air. What perfection, to be so heartless. An inspiration to any lesser immortal.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Now then, Nick, wilt thou not sleep? Nicholas glanced up from the plaquette on which he had been studying the Pali canon of Buddha’s teachings. He sighed and set it aside... You don’t look like revelation has struck you, somehow. No, Spirit. This ain’t any better than the Tao? No. Nor the Bhagavad Gita? Nor the Avesta, neither? No. I thought certain you’d like them Gnostic Gospels. Nicholas shrugged. And I reckon you ain’t even looked at that nice book on Vodou. Spirit, this is futility. What do the best of them but recapitulate the Ten Commandments, in one form or another? And I find no proof that men have obeyed strange gods any better than the God of the Israelites, or learned any more of the true nature of the Almighty. Shall I worship a cow? Shall I spin paper prayers on a wheel? I’d as lief go back to eating fish in Lent lest God smite me down, or pray to wooden Mary to take away the toothache. Well, son, allowing for the foolishness, which I reckon depends on what port you hail from—ain’t there any one seems better than the rest? None, Spirit. That I must be kind and do no harm, I needed no prophets to tell me; but not one will open his dead mouth to say what kind and harmless Lord would create this dreadful world, said Nicholas... What do I tell my boy, then, if he gets the shakes about eternal life? Set up no gods for thine Alec, Spirit. Nicholas lay back and put his arms about Mendoza, pulling her close. There is love, or there is nothing. The rest is vanity.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As it had been explained to David long ago, genetic diversity was very, very important. The more diverse the human gene pool was, the better were humanity’s chances of adapting to any new and unexpected conditions it might encounter, now that it was beginning to push outward into Space, to say nothing of surviving any unexpected natural disasters such as polar shifts or meteor strikes on Earth. Unfortunately, humanity had been both unlucky and foolish. Out of the dozens of races that had once lived in the world, only a handful had survived into modern times. Some ancient races had been rendered extinct by war. Some had been simply crowded out, retreating into remote regions and forced to breed amongst themselves, which killed them off with lethal recessives. That had been the bad luck. The foolishness had come when people began to form theories about the process of Evolution. They got it all wrong: most people interpreted the concept of “survival of the fittest” to mean they ought to narrow the gene pool, reducing it in size. So this was done, in genocidal wars and eugenics programs, and how surprised people were when lethal recessives began to occur more frequently! To say nothing of the populations who died in droves when diseases swept through them, because they were all so genetically similar there were none among them with natural immunities.”
Kage Baker (1952–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source