J. Ryan Stradal

“Well, the vast majority of people don't steal to get ahead. A lot of people work their way up from nothing without stealing."

"I don't think a lot of people work their way up from nothing, ever. People like you want to believe it happens all the time. But it really doesn't.”
― J. Ryan Stradal, The Lager Queen of Minnesota

“Why? So you can still qualify for assistance? Your family is gaming the system?"

"No." Diana had always hated when people said this about her family. The bosses who made her dad list a payroll company as his employer, they gamed the system. The assholes who convinced her parents to take out both a second mortgage and a HELOC in 2006 gamed the system. The employers who would never give Edith enough hours for benefits gamed the system. But ask a lot of people, and they'd tell you it's people like her grandma who game the system. They'd tell you that an old woman who's worked hard every day of her life and still struggles to get by is a malignant vacuum for their personal tax dollars, and a blight on their lives as free Americans. "We're just trying to live.”
― J. Ryan Stradal, The Lager Queen of Minnesota

“Money allows people to survive their mistakes, she knew from having observed that phenomenon from a distance, and people like her were fucked.”
― J. Ryan Stradal, The Lager Queen of Minnesota

“When you see a man falling off a ladder above you, Edith believed, you don't envision your arms breaking. You just hold them out.”
― J. Ryan Stradal, The Lager Queen of Minnesota