Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
We are taught to take the bread into our bodies as proof of Jesus's body.
In a real-world way, my gifts are very limited in terms of what I can do.
You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.
I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children
You have to love somebody that much to also hate them that much, too. (191)
I ain't interested in the truth. I'm interested in the way things should be.
That's one more thing people don't know about Indians: We love to talk dirty.
I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.
The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know.
If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.
If you teach kids how to tell stories, they have a better chance at everything.
Sometimes it's called passing out and sometimes it's just pretending to be asleep
We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've been lied to.
Every movie is a road movie. Every novel is a mystery. Every tortilla chip is sacred.
When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.
My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.
When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.
When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.
And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.
Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.
I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.
In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.
The problem for me with liberals is that we've abdicated our moral responsibility to the universe.
I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.
She was in pain and I loved her, sort of loved her, I guess, so I kind of had to love her pain, too.
I grew up in a storytelling culture, a tribal culture, but also in an American storytelling culture.
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
I had the feeling I was going to be successful, and I didn't want to be another disappointing Indian.
The world is divided by two different tribes. The people who are assholes and the people who are not.
Estranged from the tribe that gives no protection, What happens to the soul that hates its reflection?
He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.
When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.
But we danced, under wigs and between unfinished walls, through broken promises and around empty cupboards.
I think a lot of Indians want Indian artists to be cultural cheerleaders rather than cultural investigators.
Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.
He made me realize that hard work--that the act of finishing, of completing, of accomplishing a task--is joyous
Because I'm an American, I know there's all sorts of international folks who would gladly kidnap and behead me.
If you're good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can't be wrong.
I thought I’d been condescended to as an Indian - that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing Y.A.
I felt so conflicted about having fled the rez as a kid that I created a whole literary career that left me there.
My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.
There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. (107)
I'm not a pacifist by any measure, but I'm also fully aware that the reasons I might go to war could be very dubious.
Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions.
Religious fundamentalists are unaware that freedom of religion necessarily brings with it the freedom to mock religion.
Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.
You'd never know it from reading the rest of the Native writers, but Indians actually grew up with American pop culture.
When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good beer.
It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the rocks three miles away.