Laws are a fine thing on paper, but painful when no bribery can ease their bind. Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes by Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes From Paolo Bacigalupi We write dust epitaphs for our vanquished enemies and watch them blow away in the desert wind. Paolo Bacigalupi dust blow writing An untrampled scorpion troubles no one. Paolo Bacigalupi scorpions trouble Debts are a heavy burden. Throw them off, and you walk free. Paolo Bacigalupi debt burden heavy Sex and hypocrisy. They go together like coffee and cream. Paolo Bacigalupi coffee hypocrisy sex A desert's a stupid place to put a river. Paolo Bacigalupi desert stupid rivers At first, when California started winning its water lawsuits and shutting off cities, the displaced people just followed the water-right to California. It took a little while before the bureaucrats realized what was going on, but finally someone with a sharp pencil did the math and realized that taking in people along with their water didn't solve a water shortage. Paolo Bacigalupi cities winning math All life produces waste. The act of living produces costs, hazards and disposal questions, and so the (Environment) Ministry has found itself in the center of all life, mitigating, guiding and policing the detritus of the average person along with investigating the infractions of the greedy and short-sighted, the ones who wish to make quick profits and trade on others' lives for it. Paolo Bacigalupi hazards wish average At some point, you realize you can't provide a perfectly monolithic description of a foreign culture's future any more than you can provide a monolithic description of your own hometown's future. Your choices about what to emphasize and what to leave out make all the difference, and ultimately, your fingerprints and biases and viewpoints are going to be all over the story. Paolo Bacigalupi differences choices culture Nature has become something new. It is ours now, truly. And if our creation devours us, how poetic will that be? Paolo Bacigalupi poetic creation something-new They say in the military that a good battle plan can last as long as five minutes in real fighting. After that, it comes down to if the general is favored by fate and the spirits. Paolo Bacigalupi fighting real military Suicide is not something I owe you or yours. Paolo Bacigalupi suicide Of course, the more you read, the more you learn, and ultimately there is more information than you can ever use. The difficulty is that as an outsider, you know you're too ignorant for your own good, and so the urge to keep researching and *never* start writing is pretty strong. Paolo Bacigalupi ignorant strong writing Life is exponential. Two becomes four, becomes ten thousand, becomes a plague. Paolo Bacigalupi four life two Men are loyal when you lead from the front. Paolo Bacigalupi loyal leadership men If I cared for human approval, I would have been dead long ago. Paolo Bacigalupi long-ago humans approval The more you read about and immerse in a culture, the more it comes alive, and the more textured and nuanced and detailed and unstereotypable it becomes. Paolo Bacigalupi alive culture Don't tell me about worth," Nita said. "My father commands fleets." "The wealthy measure everything with the weight of their money." Tool leaned close. "Sadna once risked herself and the rest of her crew to help me escape from an oil fire... Your father commands fleets. And thousands of half-men, I am sure. But would he risk himself to save a single one? Paolo Bacigalupi fire men father It’s human nature to tear one another apart. Be glad you come from such a successful line of killers. Paolo Bacigalupi lines tears successful Food should come from the place of its origin, and stay there. It shouldn't spend its time crisscrossing the globe for the sake of profit. Paolo Bacigalupi profit sake should The main reason I want someone to read a story of mine is so they can enjoy it and feel like they got something interesting out of it. Paolo Bacigalupi stories want interesting
