people-from-seattle

"I have no idea! You've got more exotic Irish than I have. My neighbors would never tell me that sort of thing. They don't talk that way to me. I think it's rather interesting: a bunch of new paintings I'm thinking of doing still keep the “Giants” in mind. I came across something a couple of weeks ago where they found bones in Northern Ireland of a woman and a man. And I guess either in the same graves or next door to each other. But they were brother and sister. Incest. Maybe like the Pharaohs: they ruled as brother and sister."

"On the same canvas. Yes. Well, that's essentially what I'm doing. And I have been tempted to say that I make history paintings—but I know quite well that nobody anymore knows what I mean. If you say “classic,” that doesn't mean anything, but “history painting” is what I'm doing and I know I'm doing that, but I wouldn't choose it as a way of explaining it to an audience today cause they don't know."

"No, I wasn't interested in being Irish. And I wasn't interested in being in the Irish—in the sense of their mindset and miracles … I think you called them “myths.” But in the scheme of things, I liked the Irish and I liked living in Ireland and moreso familiarizing myself with their bewitching landscape and that story."

"Narrative is telling a story, I’m providing a situation. And it's in time, right now. Paintings are not in time. These are not narrative paintings. They can't be. Painting is boom: it's one time! It doesn't move, unless you put two of them in diptychs, or cartoon strips. And that's how they move. You can be doing narrative that way, if you want. But single paintings are a situation, they're snapshots. So, I avoid the word narrative. I'm not telling a story. I'm telling a situation. And I don't know a better way to say that. If you have a better way, please give it to me now."

"He was a smart man, but he always wanted to be the big cheese, throwing money around and doing it his way"

"My lawyer in 2008 had been after me for a long time to set up diversionary accounts for estates purposes, the theory being that you don't have all your eggs in one basket. We put the house in it, the cars in it, the jewellery in it... [It was done] in case you fall on hard times, then creditors can't grab everything."

"What if I slip him some money, think he’ll go away?"

"Our nation's economic success is tied directly to America continuing to lead in technology and innovation, and in exporting those products, services and ideas to nations around the globe. The Department of Commerce plays a critical role in nurturing innovation, expanding global markets, protecting and managing our ocean fisheries, and fostering economic growth. The Department of Commerce can and will help create the jobs and the economic vitality our nation needs."

"To keep the American Dream alive in a high-tech and unpredictable future, we have to raise our sights, and our standards. We must raise our sights above the partisanship, the prejudice, and the arrogance that keep us from acknowledging our common humanity and our common future. And we must raise our standards of academic achievement, of government productivity and customer service, of the careful preservation of the natural environment we cherish, and of our determination to protect the well-being of Washington's working families."

"Commentators have suggested that increasing economic and military competition from China is the beginning of a new Cold War. Others have suggested that high levels of trade and integration with China and today’s global economy means a more cooperative dynamic exists. The current conflict in Ukraine though has added new complexities to ours, foreign relations as Western nations implement unprecedented sanctions against Russia and provide support to Ukraine while avoiding a direct role in the conflict."

"Well, it’s always important for any administrator, executive — whether in the private sector, or in government, or a college campus — to be talking with all members of the organization, the rank and file, to really understand what their issues are, and what their dreams and aspirations are, and what their frustrations are."

"I like to encourage students to reach for the stars and go for their dreams. I tell them not to be afraid to pursue something different. I also tell them that it's very important to read as much and as often as they can and to work hard in school."

"With the military becoming increasingly dependent on commercial-off-the-shelf dual-use technology, it is important to ensure that our licensing criteria are based on objective technical parameters that take into account the strategic nature of an item and whether or not the item is available from non-U.S. suppliers."

"My family and I traveled throughout China. Everywhere we went the Chinese people received us with warmth and friendliness. When we visited my ancestral home, we were mobbed by the local villagers waiting to take pictures with us. It was a deeply moving experience for my children to see where their grandfather and great grandfather were born."

"We are always open to new ideas. The incredible diversity from around the world, and that constant infusion of new ideas, cultures and perspectives, is what really makes our region so dynamic and exciting."

"I always wanted a job where I could help people. I never dreamed when I ran for a seat in the Legislature that I would end up in the Governor's office. At the time, I wanted to do something to improve education in the state. It's still my highest priority."

"You have to remain calm. You can’t make precipitous decisions. You just have to sit down and be very thoughtful and deliberative in everything you say and do."

"Our higher education system has to be a part of the economic recovery strategy."

"I joke that it took our family 100 years to travel one mile. But what a journey it has been. Our family story is the story of millions of families whose ancestors came to these shores from all around the world in search of freedom, opportunity, and equality."

"The strength of America is our diversity of people, ethnicities, cultures, languages, religions — this is the secret sauce of our dynamism and resilience."

"I always indicated my pride in my heritage and the contributions of Chinese civilization over thousands of years, and I would also highlight what I thought were some of the greatest attributes of America and its contributions to the world. And then I would indicate that I was the representative of the United States and its people."

"The virus of hate threatens our safety, our institutions, our democracy, our freedoms, and not least, our common humanity. Let us commit ourselves to working together for a more peaceful, just, and loving world."

"I am honored to serve as governor of Washington, and especially as our nation's first Chinese-American governor. It is a difficult and tiring job at times, but it is also very rewarding."

"I really believe in picking top notch people and then sitting down with them, and making expectations very, very clear and insisting that they involve their employees. You know the top managers are political and they come and go. If processes and systems are to change for the better permanently you have to involve the line staff, the career people, so that they have ownership in it. It is one thing for the top political people to sketch out, like the drawing of an office tower or skyscraper. You sketch it out on paper, but the actual details and the engineering are done by others. You have to enlist the career people to fill in the blanks, because if they have ownership they will believe in it and they will carry it through."

"If you wouldn't go around bragging that you're a homosexual, maybe it wouldn't happen"

"We're not putting Spot to sleep, we're putting a human being to sleep"

"Our source of strength is daily prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, as well as daily Eucharist...Like other daily appointments, prayer (our appointment with God), needs to be scheduled."

"In the context of the priesthood, which flows out of society, there is a particular challenge to help men grow in manly virtue. The priesthood is not for the faint of heart, but for men who are up to the challenge of living as Christ in laying down their life on a daily basis."

"The character that the priest receives is a comfort to the faithful inasmuch as they realize that their faith is not based in the personality of the priest, but rather the Person of Christ working through the priest. On the other hand, the priest is called, like all of the faithful, to a life of holiness. The character received at ordination is actually a dynamism for priestly holiness. The more he can assimilate his life to Christ and submit to the gift he received at ordination, the more he will be a credible witness to the faithful and edify the Body of Christ."

"Many of the young have not rejected the faith — in many ways, they've never been exposed to it. We know the message of Jesus Christ does fill the longing of the human heart. But to those who have discovered the emptiness of that world, the priesthood can fill their hearts. Young people desire challenge, identity, mission."

"“Stories are pretty dumb animals. And so aggressive!” I clapped my hands. “Say three ways they’re dumb!” “Let’s see.” Papo counted them off on his fingers. “They’re cold-blooded, they use big words when they ought to use small ones, and they have no natural defense against comets.”"

"They are time, and time eats everything but listens to no one."

"Life is beautiful and life is stupid. This is, in fact, widely regarded as a universal rule not less inviolable than the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Uncertainty Principle, and No Post on Sundays."

"But in the end, all wars are more or less the same. If you dig down through the layers of caramel corn and peanuts and choking, burning death, you’ll find the prize at the bottom and the prize is a question and the question is this: Which of us are people and which of us are meat?"

"And then she’d take off again, with a sort of confused-confounded glance down at me, as though every time she came home, it was a shock to remember that I’d ever been born."

"I don’t know why you would even bring up the Internet. The xeno-intelligence officer responsible for evaluating your digital communication required invasive emergency therapy after an hour’s exposure. One glance at that thing is the strongest argument possible against the sentience of humanity. I wouldn’t draw attention to it, if I were you."

"You can’t stop people being assholes. They do love it so. The best you can hope for is that some people, sometimes, will turn out to be somewhat less than the absolute worst. When they manage to trip and fall over that incredibly low bar, they’ll make you want to end it all. But when they leap over it, they’ll make you believe this whole mess really was created for a reason—the bastards. Except me, of course. I’m superb. Ask anyone. And you’re all right, I suppose. Welcome to being a people, kid. It’s just dreadful up here."

"Everyone imitates our groove these days. But we were into poisoning our competition and performing an extended dance sequence on their graves before it was cool."

"Everybody fucks.…Being ashamed of it makes about as much sense as being ashamed of the speed of light."

"Everyone’s always saying love is the element that binds the universe together, but that’s a load of bollocks; it’s convenience."

"Are you kind enough, on your little planet, not to shut that rhythm down? Not to crush underfoot the singers of songs and tellers of tales and wearers of silk? Because it’s monsters who do that. Who extinguish art. Who burn books. Who ban music. Who yell at anyone with ears to turn off that racket. Who cannot see outside themselves clearly enough to sing their truth to the heavens. Do you have enough goodness in your world to let the music play? Do you have soul?"

"“And how does that make you feel?” he crooned in the comforting tone of a therapist who may or may not actually care."

"My percussionist thinks you have a touch of Metastasized Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Blek. My diagnosis? You’re an asshole. Sadly, the only known cure is being set on fire and dropped off a balcony."

"Sex is universal, it’s just not evenly distributed."

"Failure was here before you and she’ll be here after you and she won’t even notice you go."

"What was magical at two in the morning was tawdry and cheap and dangerous to your health at two in the afternoon."

"He’d only said what he meant, which was, when you thought about it, a minor superpower, because so few people ever did."

"Everyone you know is a monster, sweetie. We’ve watched a lot of your media, you know. It’s an excellent way to evaluate societal sentience. You seem to be very concerned with monsters. Monsters from above, monsters from below, monsters among you, monsters from the sea, radioactive monsters, machine monsters, magical monsters, serial monsters who can only be stopped by monsters with badges. It’s a whole thing with you people. We got terrifically bored after a while. After all, you always win against the monsters, even though you’re the ones slowly cooking your planet because you can’t be bothered not to, butchering one another for fun and profit, making up elaborate stories that start with being calm and treating everyone with kindness and equality but somehow always end with somebody getting enslaved, absolutely obliterating the other species with whom you share a world so you can take a photograph with their corpses or gobble up their best features in hopes of achieving a more satisfying erection, and being generally willing to sell the fleeting, unique, fragile lives of everyone you’ve ever met if it means you can consume a slightly larger share of resources than they can. You can’t even agree on whether or not a sick child should get a tissue without having to really work for it. None of you seems to be able to stand one another. How will you treat us, if you are allowed to swarm across the galaxy? Which of us have horns or tusks or claws we feel quite attached to that might arouse your sluggish organs? Yes, of course, you’ve done some clever things with your time. No one is denying that rhythmic gymnastics are really just terrific. But in a clinch, you lot would rather watch someone suffer untold horrors than watch them enjoy so much as a cool drink if you don’t have two of your own, and yours have cherries in them as well as more ice and little paper umbrellas, and even then most of you would still prefer to take theirs and have three. This is not the behavior of a sentient race. It is the behavior of wild animals. Even your babies view anyone who doesn’t look just exactly like their parents with seething suspicion. It’s baked in to you. I’ll put this in words you can understand: humans are hideous, pain-guzzling, pollution-spouting space monsters who might threaten our way of life. Now, how does that usually pan out in the movies, kitten? At least we let you try to convince us we’re wrong. I doubt you asked the dodo birds what they thought about it before you blasted the last one in the face with a blunderbuss."

"Though any species on any dumb gobworld may develop sentience (the poor bastards), no government ever does."

"The only question is this: Do you have enough empathy and yearning and desperation to connect to others outside yourself and scream into the void in four-part harmony? Enough brainpower and fine motor control and aesthetic ideation to look at feathers and stones and stuff that comes out of a worm’s more unpleasant holes and see gowns, veils, platform heels? Enough sheer style and excess energy to do something that provides no direct, material benefit to your personal survival, that might even mark you out from the pack as shiny, glittery prey, to do it for no other reason than that it rocks?"