Paolo Bacigalupi

"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 re…"

"All life produces waste. The act of living produces costs, hazards and disposal questions, and so the Ministry has found itself in the center of all life, mitigating, guiding and policing the detritus…"

"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. We went down that path once, and it brought us to ruin."

"Knowledge is simply a terrible ocean we must cross, and hope that wisdom lies on the other side."

"Laws are confusing documents. They get in the way of justice."

"Every time he makes plans for his future, he seems to fail. Every time he reaches forward, the world leans against him, pressing him down."

"Laws are a fine thing on paper, but painful when no bribery can ease their bind."

"No one had ever come for him... not his mom, not his dad, not his brother, not a dozen people who he'd called his friends back in his town on the coast, not a one of them had ever come looking for him…"