Quotes from Sherman Alexie

Thomas, Chess said, if you don't want to be famous and have your stories heard, then why'd you start the band up? I heard voices, Thomas said. I guess I heard voices. I mean, I'm sort of a liar, enit? I like the attention. I want strangers to love me. I don't even know why. But I want all kids of strangers to love me. The Indian horses screamed.

It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the hugest words in the world when they're put together. You can do it.

Lies have short shelf lives. Lies go bad. Lies rot and stink up the joint.

The quality of a man's life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.

Of course, you can't lie forever. Lies have short shelf lives. Lies go bad. Lies rot and stink up the joint.

They're not starving to death, but they look hollow-eyed and barren, like they've been fed just enough food but never enough happiness.

You have to treat your car with love. And I don't mean love of an object. You see, that's just wrong. That's materialism. You have to love your car like it's sentient being, like it can love you back. Now, that's some deep-down agape love.

As for romance, Frank had dated a few women over the years but found them to be too inconsistent and illogical, so he dated a few men and found them to be even more random and frightening.

My heart is beating a punk rock song against my chest.

Sir, in your thirty-nine years as a parent, you broke your children's hearts, collectively and individually, 612 times and you did this without ever striking any human being in anger. Does this absence of physical violence make you a better man than you might otherwise have been?

I am surrounded by people who trust me to be a respectful stranger. Am I trustworthy? Are any of us trustworthy? I hope so.

I was dancing for my soul and for the soul of my tribe. I was dancing for what we Indians used to be and who we might become again.

So I looked up the word grief in the dictionary. And then I discovered the answer: grief (greef) n. When you feel so helpless and stupid that you think nothing will ever be right again, and your macaroni and cheese tastes like sawdust, and you can't even jerk off because it seems like too much trouble.

I believe in any kid's ability to read any book and form their own judgments. It's the job of a parent to guide his/her child through the reading of every book imaginable. Censorship of any form punishes curiosity.

But people forget.

I'm honored by your concern. I would like To gather all of the books that contain The words mother and grief, set them aflame, And dance as they burn.

I didn't belong Because maybe I never wanted To belong. When everybody else danced and sang, I sat silently in my room with books, Books, and books. I used books for self-defense And as stealth bombers: I am better than you Because I have read more books than you; I am Beloved by these books; I am beloved by words.

If you care about something enough, its going to make you cry.

If you kill a black man, the world is silent. You can hear a garage door opening from twenty blocks away. You can pick up a pay phone and only hear the dial tone. Shooting stars sound exactly like the soft laughter of a little girl in Gasworks Park. If you kill a white man, the world erupts with noise: fireworks, sirens, a gavel pounding a desk, the slamming of doors.

If you don't like the things you remember, then all you have to do is change the memories. Instead of remembering the bad things, remember what happened immediately before.

Good art is not universal. Bruce Willis is universal.

Branch by branch, Rowdy and I climbed toward the top of the tree, to the bottom of the sky.

one ponders. And when one ponders, one creates theories—hypotheses, to explain the world.

Okay, so it's like each of these books is a mystery every book is a mystery. And if you read all the books ever written, it's like you've read one giant mystery. And no matter how much you learn, you just keep on learning there is so more you need to learn.