Quotes by Joseph Bruchac - Page 1

Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Paper
Strong
Strong Words
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As long as we can remember them, our families will always be with us.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Long
Our Family
Remember
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Knowledge is easy to come by. Understanding what you know takes much longer.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Easy
Understanding
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I was a very avid reader when I was a child, and I also was a good listener.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Avid
Reader
Listener
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A story is a burden which must be carried with as much care as we carry a sleeping child
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Children
Sleep
Stories
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Guilt can make you doubt yourself at the very moment when you need to proceed with certainty.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Doubt
Guilt
Needs
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Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Enemy
Pretending
Soldier
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We need to walk to know sacred places, those around us and those within. We need to walk to remember the songs.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Nature
Sacred Places
Song
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It is amazing to me that so little is still known about the Trail of Tears or the lives of the Cherokees themselves.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Tears
Trail
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I often find myself unsatisfied with books 'about' Indians because they are written from the viewpoint of non-Indians.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Unsatisfied
Indians
Viewpoint
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Do we make ourselves into what we become or is it built into our genes, into the fate spun for us by whatever shapes events?
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Events
Fate
Shapes
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My family is Abenaki Indian on my mother's side. My father's side of the family is Slovak, and we also have some English ancestry.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Ancestry
Indian
Family Mother Father
Family Father Mother
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I'm inspired by many different things. Often, I'm inspired by experiences I've had, books I've read, people I've met, stories I've heard.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Different
Different Things
Heard
Inspired
Stories
Books
Read
Often
Experiences
Met
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One of the things I've been taught by Native American elders is the importance of patience, of waiting to do things when the time is right.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Patience
Elders
Importance
Native
Native American
Taught
Waiting
One Of The Things
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The best teachers have shown me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly - we only think it does.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Teacher
Mean
Thinking
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At a time when Europeans already had a long history of violent contact with Native people, Lewis and Clark made most of their journey in peace.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Contact
Lewis And Clark
Native
Clark
Europeans
Time Peace History
Lewis
Long History
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I don't recall exactly when I first began reading about Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery, but I suspect that it was in fourth grade.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Discovery
Fourth
Lewis And Clark
Clark
Corps
Grade
Lewis
Recall
Suspect
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The Trail of Tears should teach all of us the importance of respect for others who are different from ourselves and compassion for those who have difficulties.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Respect
Compassion
Importance
Teach
Difficulties
Respect For Others
Trail
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I think I always knew I would be a writer some day, but it wasn't until I was grown and had children of my own that I turned to telling Native American stories.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Native
Native American
Grown
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Native people such as the Cherokees are just as human and complex and real as Americans are, and our nation needs to respect American Indian cultures and traditions.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Culture
People
Real
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It is important to understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world and expressing the wisdom of Native belief...No one voice speaks for all voices.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Wisdom
Expression
Native American
Voice
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Very good records exist about the Trail of Tears. Journals and other records kept by Cherokees and non-Indians tell such things as which people were where on which day.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Good Records
Records
Tears
Good Day People
Exist
Journals
Such Things
Trail
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I think every writer will tell you that their characters are always partially themselves: who I am and what I've experienced. It's always there in part of my characters.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Always I Am Will
Experienced
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The Cherokees tried to do everything within the law and wished only to live in peace on their own lands. Yet they were cheated out of their birthright and treated as if they were less than human.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Birthright
Cheated
Wished
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To begin with, I want to tell a good story, a story that people will listen to and that they'll think this is true, even if it is a story that might be defined as - as myth or legend or even fanciful.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Defined
Good Story
Myth
Good People True
Legend
Fanciful
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I grew up in the small town of Greenfield Center, New York, which is in the foothills of the Adirondacks not far from the city of Saratoga Springs. It is a place I love, close to the forests and the mountains.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Forests
Small Town
Love City New
Springs
Center
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I did not walk every step of the Trail of Tears at one time. Instead, over the last 20 years, I have walked various segments of it in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Arkansas
Carolina
Every Step
Georgia
Missouri
North Carolina
Oklahoma
One Time
Tears
Tennessee
Segments
Trail
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The special skills necessary for being a storyteller are really very simple. I actually talked about them in a book of mine called 'Tell Me a Tale.' Those basic skills are to listen, to observe, to remember, and to share.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Skills
Observe
Tale
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The Trail of Tears has a great deal of meaning for every person of American Indian ancestry, whether they are Cherokee or not. For me, it has always stood for what is best and worst about the history of the United States.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Ancestry
Cherokee
Indian
Tears
Best History Great
Great Deal
Stood
Trail
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There is a kind of certainty that seems to characterize Jared Smith's best work, an understanding about place and the flow of spirit that makes you think of Thoreau along with a commitment as fierce as that of Pablo Neruda.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Commitment
Make You Think
Thinking
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One of the things I've been taught by Native American elders is the importance of patience, of waiting to do things when the time is right. As an Onondaga friend put it to me, "you can't pick berries until the berries are ripe."
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Importance
Native American
Waiting
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Over the years, I found myself traveling parts of the Lewis and Clark Trail, putting my hands in the river where they set out from St. Louis, viewing the Great Falls of Montana, standing by the same Pacific Ocean they saw with such joy.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Ocean
Lewis And Clark
Montana
Pacific
Pacific Ocean
Louis
Clark
Lewis
River
St. Louis
Trail
Viewing
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My grandfather, Jesse Bowman, was of Abenaki Indian descent. He could barely read and write, but I remember him as one of the kindest people I ever knew. I followed him everywhere. He showed me how to walk quietly in the woods and how to fish.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Descent
Grandfather
Indian
Remember
Woods
Everywhere
Walk Me Remember
Barely
Fish
Read
Followed
Walk
Quietly
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There are many people who could claim and learn from their Indian ancestry, but because of the fear their parents and grandparents knew, because of past and present prejudice against Indian people, that part of their heritage is clouded or denied.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Grandparent
Past
People
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My own special knowledge is about the Abenaki people and, to some degree, my Iroquois neighbors. But whenever I write anything about another tribal nation, I always get a lot of help. Not just from books, but from people who belong to that tribal nation.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Iroquois
Belong
Neighbors
Tribal
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I was raised by my grandparents, who had a little general store. My grandmother, Marion Dunham Bowman, was a graduate of Albany Law School. Although she never did practice law, she kept the house filled with books. It's because of her that I was always reading.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Albany
Filled
Law School
Practice
Raised
Reading
Although
General
Books
Graduate
Marion
Store
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Never think that war is a good thing, grandchildren. Though it may be necessary at times to defend our people, war is a sickness that must be cured. War is a time out of balance. When it is truly over, we must work to restore peace and sacred harmony once again.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
War
Grandchildren
Thinking
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From my teenage years on, I sought out Native elders from many tribal nations and listened to their words. I also started a small press, The Greenfield Review Press, and became very involved with publishing the work of other American Indian authors, especially books of poetry.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Elders
Indian
Involved
Nations
Publishing
Teenage
Teenage Years
Authors
Listened
Review
Sought
Tribal
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If it wasn't for good," my mother says, "we human beings would have been wiped out a long time ago. Either the monsters would have gotten us or we would have killed each other off with greed and jealousy and anger. So we have to believe in good. We have to look for the good in ourselves.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Believe
Long
Mother
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Every year, I travel extensively in the autumn and the spring. I set most of the winter and summer aside for my family and my own tribal relatives. But during that traveling time, I often find myself visiting other native communities around the continent - perhaps a dozen or more each year.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Autumn
Dozen
Native
Spring
Visiting
Winter
Time Family Travel
Aside
Communities
Continent
Each Year
Family Time Travel
Relatives
Tribal
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The best teachers have showed me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly--we only think it does. The motion of drawing back a bow and sending an arrow straight into a target takes only a split second, but it is a skill many years in the making. So it is with a life, anyone's life.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Teacher
Mean
Thinking
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A journal is a very personal thing. As far as possible, to write this sort of book you need to know and feel your character as a person and then put yourself into that person's mind, place and time. Trying to stay in that person, place and time is a challenge when surrounded by this very different world of the 21st century.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Book
Character
Writing
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When the Lakota leader Sitting Bull was asked by a white reporter why his people loved and respected him, Sitting Bull replied by asking if it was not true that among white people a man is respected because he has many horses, many houses? When the reporter replied that was indeed true, Sitting Bull then said that his people respected him because he kept nothing for himself.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Men
Horse
White
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Another of the hard things about being in a war, grandchildren, is that although there are times of quiet when the fighting has stopped, you know you will soon be fighting again. Those quiet times give you the chance to think about what has happened. Some of it you would rather not think about, as you remember the pain and the sorrow. You also have time to worry about what will happen when you go into battle again.
Joseph Bruchac / Writer
Fear
War
Pain
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