People From Washington State

"“You’re a slave trader, then?” Althalus shrugged deprecatingly. “It’s a living, your Highness. Slaves are a valuable commodity. I buy them in places where they’re an inconvenience and take them to places where they can be put to work to pay for their keep. Everybody benefits, really. The one who sells them to me gets gold, and the one who buys them gets laborers.” “What do the slaves get?” “They get fed, your Highness. A slave doesn’t have to worry about where his next meal’s coming from. He gets fed even when the crops fail or the fish aren’t biting.” "Our philosophers tell us that slavery’s an evil.” “I don’t concern myself with philosophy, your Highness. I take the world as I find it. I’m prepared to offer ten Perquaine gold wheats for every able-bodied young captive you’d care to sell.”"

"“Astonishing!” Andine said in mock amazement. “Everybody says that making speeches is difficult. I didn’t seem to have any trouble at all.” “Any speech goes over better with musical accompaniment, Andine,” Leitha suggested. “And Eliar plays the gold keg like a world-renowned virtuoso.” “It’s the most beautiful music I’ve ever heard,” Koleika said fervently. “I’m glad I stayed for the concert.”"

"“I’ll need a few kegs of your gold, though,” he added. Althalus shrugged. “I had a feeling that might crop up.” “‘Money makes the mare go,’ ” Kreuter quoted. “Wouldn’t she settle for oats?” “She might, but I won’t.”"

"Why do men always want to tamper with the natural order of things? “When something breaks, we fix it, that’s all.” What gave you the absurd idea that [the world]’s broken? “It’s not the way it was before, Em. To our way of looking at things, that means that it’s broken.” [...] Change doesn’t necessarily mean improvement, Althalus. Change is just change. “Better” and “worse” are human definitions. The world changes all the time, and no amount of complaining’s going to stop it from changing."

""Arums are real soldiers, and I want to hire them to train and advise the lowlanders to fight their own wars—at least this one.” “You’re asking me to put myself out of business, Althalus,” Albron objected. “Not really. After we’ve smashed Ghend’s armies, things should go back to normal. The princes of the low countries will still break out in rashes of ambition, and they’ll come here to Arum to hire professionals to do their fighting. It’s a matter of economics, Albron. It’s very expensive to train and maintain any army. Even when there’s no war, you have to keep feeding them. It’s cheaper in the long run to hire Arums.”"

"“What’s it like?” Andine asked curiously. “Hearing the thoughts of others, I mean?” “Disturbing,” Leitha replied. “What people say and what they’re thinking don’t always exactly match. We’re much closer to being animals than most of us would care to admit.”"

"Delegating authority seems unnatural to women. First they tell you to do something, and then they keep sticking their noses into it while you’re trying to do it, and all they’re really doing is getting in the way."

"“You’re forcing me to violate one of my most sacred vows.” “Oh, I’m sorry. We won’t do it that way then. We’ll just kill everybody in this part of Kweron instead. You’ll be standing waist-deep in blood, but your soul will be all nice and clean. Won’t that make you proud?” “Monstrous!” “It’s entirely up to you, Bheid. You can either be a swindler or a butcher. Take your pick.”"

""This grey’s sort of depressing.” What on earth has that got to do with anything? “It’s a question of aesthetics, Em. We should always strive to fill our lives with beauty.” I don’t see anything beautiful in something that was designed to kill people. “There’s beauty in everything, Em. You just have to learn to look for it.” If you’re going to preach at me, I think I’ll just curl up and go back to sleep."

"“Class distinctions are an impediment to understanding, Althalus,” Bheid told him, “and anything that interferes with understanding should be discarded.” “You might want to give some thought to keeping that particular opinion tucked up under your arm, Bheid,” Althalus advised. “It won’t make you very popular in certain quarters.”"

"The fate of man might very well depend on what we’re doing. He’s doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, but it’s still the right thing."

"Wars are a summer pastime, Althalus. Politics is a year-round entertainment."

"Getting some of your people killed is part of the business of command."

""His father was killed in a war several years ago, and Eliar became his mother’s only support. [...] [His] mother needed his soldier’s pay to keep eating. [...] Your father was unlucky enough to get in his way while he was showing his veneration for his parents. Isn’t that sort of what you were doing when you were planning to kill him before Althalus came along?” “It’s not the same thing at all, Bheid [...] My father was the Aryo of Osthos. Eliar’s father was just a common soldier.” “And do you believe that Eliar loved his father less than you loved yours? We all love and revere our parents, Andine, and the peasant or common soldier loves—and grieves—as deeply as the aristocrat. You might want to think about that just a bit before you launch yourself into your next tirade.”"

"“All right, lady, I’m woodsy. So what? If you don’t like the way I look, don’t look at me. I don’t have any parents, and I wear rags because that’s all I can find to wear. I don’t see where that’s any of your business, though. I’m too busy staying alive to worry about how I look, and if you don’t like it that way, well, that’s just too bad.” Andine was gaping at Gher. “People don’t talk to me that way!” she gasped. “Not to your face, maybe,” Gher shot back, “but I think if you’d close your mouth and listen to other people once in a while, you might find out what they really think of you. But you don’t want to know, do you? I wasn’t raised in a palace the way you were, lady. I grew up in a garbage heap, so I don’t have fancy manners.” “I don’t have to listen to this!” “Maybe you don’t have to, but you really should. I breathe in and out the same as you do, lady, and you don’t own the air, so it belongs to me as much as it does to you. Just back away, lady. You make me even sicker than I make you.”"

"“You’ve got some fairly radical opinions for a member of the priesthood, Bheid,” Althalus suggested. “The goal of mankind should be justice, Althalus. In their hearts, men really want to be just and kindly, but other things get in the way. It’s the duty of the priesthood to keep man on the right course.” “Isn’t it just a little early in the day for these dense philosophical discussions?” Althalus asked. “It’s never too early—or too late—to learn, my son,” Bheid proclaimed sententiously. “Now, that’s really offensive.” Bheid gave him a mischievous little smirk. “I’m glad you liked it,” he said."

"Althalus took the child by the scruff of the neck and hauled him to the fire. “I didn’t do anything!” the child protested in a shrill voice, struggling to get free. “That’s probably because you’re too clumsy for this line of work.""

"If you’d keep your nose out of things that don’t concern you, you wouldn’t hear so much that offends you."

""We don’t believe in your wars, we don’t believe in your customs, and we don’t believe in your Gods.” “Your lives are empty, then.” “The money sort of fills that up—at least that’s what Sergeant Khalor told us.”"

"The most important part of strategy is keeping your men alive. If you take care of your men, they’ll take care of you."

"I don’t like to contaminate a good story with truth, Em. That’d be a violation of my artistic integrity, wouldn’t it?"

"“I wouldn’t have any trouble working for a woman,” Chief Gweti bleated, “as long as she’s rich enough. I’d work for a rich goat, if he offered me enough gold.”"

"The prosperity of all Arum might well hinge upon what we do here in this day... [If] Arum Chiefs are dishonorable men, who will ever come to these sacred mountains again with gold to deal with us? Take less, my sons, that ye may gain more."

"“You don’t carry spears or bows?” “They’d just get in the way, sir. A sling doesn’t weigh hardly anything, and you can find good rocks anywhere.” “I thought the sling was just a child’s toy.” “Oh, no, Sergeant Khalor,” Althalus told him. “I carried a sling for years myself when I was younger. It kept me eating on a regular basis.” “Could a man kill a horse with one?” “Easily. The bone between a horse’s eyes isn’t very thick. I haven’t used a sling for a long time, but I’m fairly certain I could drop a horse in midstride from a hundred paces.” “That’s a little hard to swallow, Althalus." “I’ve taken rabbits at fifty paces — and a horse is quite a bit bigger than a rabbit.”"

"This exhibition engages the child in all of us while at the same time highlighting sophisticated and complex concepts. I use LEGO in my art because the toy is accessible. Chances are, you probably don't have a slab of marble or a ceramic kiln at home. But I bet you have some LEGO bricks."

"Create what you see. Create what you feel. Create what you have never seen. Just create."

"Swim against the current! Follow your own path! Find the courage within!"

"I first learned adjectives through School House Rock. I learned how to count to ten through Sesame Street. I learned about gravity through my Slinky. Imagine if a child learns about art history through LEGO!"

"When I was a lawyer, I quickly came to realize I was more comfortable sitting on the floor, creating sculptures than I was sitting in a boardroom, negotiating contracts. My own personal conflicts and fears, coupled with a deep desire for overall happiness, paved the way to becoming a full-time, working artist."

"Art makes better humans, art is necessary in understanding the world and art makes people happy. Undeniably, art is not optional."

"I carry a sketch pad with me wherever I go. Many of my works center on the phenomena of how everyday life, people and raw emotion are intertwined. I am inspired by my own experiences, the journeys I take and the people I meet."

"My favorite subject is the human form. A lot of my work suggests a figure in transition. It represents the metamorphosis I am experiencing in my own life. My pieces grown out of my fears and accomplishments, as a lawyer and as an artist, as a boy and as a man."

"Washington is known for Starbucks and Microsoft, but very little is said of agriculture that generates wealth for the state. Most of the people working in this field are migrant workers, and I am here because we need them."

"Why does God allow natural disasters and tragedy? Because good seems to flourish in close proximity to evil. Tragedy provides an opportunity to make saints out of sinners."

"Doing something controversial was never my intention. This was just my sense of humor, and the kind of humor in my family. I never drew anything my mom wouldn’t have laughed at. Of course, my mom was insane. I’m kidding! Well, maybe a little."

"My own benchmark for success was pretty basic — I just wanted to be able to pay my rent. Beyond reaching that goal I really didn’t care much. I was doing something I loved, getting by, and that’s what mattered. So, in my own eyes, I think I became successful somewhere in my second year. But I’m not sure I ever quite shook the sense that the whole thing might be a house of cards. I always felt like yesterday’s cartoon was yesterday’s cartoon, and I was only as funny as today’s."

"You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stones! Shall I dig under her skin for bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it and be rich like white men, but how dare I cut my mother's hair? I want my people to stay with me here. All the dead men will come to life again. Their spirits will come to their bodies again. We must wait here in the homes of our fathers and be ready to meet them in the bosom of our mother."

"The puzzle is why so many people live so badly. Not so wickedly, but so inanely. Not so cruelly, but so stupidly. There is little to admire and less to imitate in the people who are prominent in our culture. We have celebrities but not saints. Famous entertainers amuse a nation of bored insomniacs. Infamous criminals act out the aggressions of timid conformists. Petulant and spoiled athletes play games vicariously for lazy and apathetic spectators. People, aimless and bored, amuse themselves with trivia and trash. Neither the adventure of goodness nor the pursuit of justice gets headlines."

"Creativity is difficult. When you are being creative, you’re living by faith. You don’t know what’s next because the created, by definition, is what’s never been before. So you’re living at the edge of something in which you’re not very confident. You might fail: in fact, you almost certainly will fail a good part of the time. All the creative persons I know throw away most of the stuff they do."

"On "Got Me Wrong". **Liner notes, Music Bank box set, 1999."

"On "Grind". **Liner notes, Music Bank box set, 1999."

"On "Heaven Beside You". **"

"On "Them Bones". **Liner notes, Music Bank box set, 1999."

"On "Them Bones. **"

"On "Rooster". **Liner notes, Music Bank box set, 1999."

"On "Over Now". **"

"On "We Die Young". **Liner notes, Music Bank box set, 1999."

"On losing his mother and grandmother in a short space of time, quoted in *"

"On "Man In The Box". **"

"Jerry Cantrell speaking with the crowd during Alice in Chains' concert at the InMusic Festival in Zagreb, Croatia on June 27, 2018, quoted in *"