Gary Castaldo

“Oh, America the Beautiful, where are our standards? How did Europeans, ancestral cultures to most of us, whose average crowded country would fit inside one of our national parks, somehow hoard the market share of Beautiful? They’ll run over a McDonald’s with a bulldozer because it threatens the way of life of their fine cheeses. They have international trade hissy fits when we try to slip modified genes into their bread. They get their favorite ham from Parma, Italy, along with a favorite cheese, knowing these foods are linked in an ancient connection the farmers have crafted between the milk and the hogs. Oh. We were thinking Parmesan meant, not “coming from Parma,” but “coming from a green shaker can.” Did they kick us out for bad taste?

No, it was mostly for vagrancy, poverty, or being too religious. We came here for the freedom to make a Leaves of Grass kind of culture and hear America singing to a good beat, pierce our navels as needed, and eat whatever we want without some drudge scolding: “You don’t know where that’s been!” And boy howdy, we do not.” (p.4)”
― Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life

“As sweet as it feels, I can't lie here forever curled up in a big ball of fuck-the-world.”
― Richard Kadrey, Kill the Dead

“Whip us 'till we're on the floor, we'll turn around and ask for more, we're Phèdre's Boys!
We like to hurt, we like to bleed, daily floggings do we need, we're Phèdre's Boys!
Man or woman, we don't care, give us twins we'll take the pair! We're Phèdre's Boys!
...But just because we let you beat us, doesn't mean you can defeat us, we're Phèdre's Boys!”
― Jacqueline Carey

“How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.”
― Andy Weir, The Martian