Quotes from Sherman Alexie

Be Still, be still, she would say between her teeth, but Arnold loved his body too much to remain still.

Lynn's parents refused to accept Sean Casey's Indian blood and, in fact, exhibited a kind of denial that was nearly pathological in its intensity.

It is warm, soon to be cold, but that's in the future, maybe tomorrow, probably the next day and all the days after that. Today, now, I drink what I have, will eat what is left in the cupboard, while my mother finishes her quilt, piece by piece. Believe me, there is just barely enough goodness in all of this.

I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.

In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.

We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization.

You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.

she braided my sister's hair with hands that smelled deep roots buried in the earth she told me the old stories how time never mattered when she died they gave me her clock

My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it.

The problem is that too many adults think their kids' lives are simple, or they try to make their lives simple, when their emotional lives are just as complicated as ours. They might have a few less tools to deal with it because they're young, but the emotions are all the same, and the subject matter is all the same.

You have to love somebody that much to also hate them that much, too. (191)

I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.

I look more Indian when I'm serious.

Sixty percent of all Indians live in urban areas, but nobody's writing about them. They're really an underrepresented population, and the ironic thing is very, very few of those we call Native American writers actually grew up on reservations, and yet most of their work is about reservations.

I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.

I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That's right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that's kind of perverted or maybe it's just romantic and highly intelligent.

In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn't like that at all. And he told her one time, 'You shouldn't go on the rez if you're white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.'

You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.

My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.

My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.

My father is an amazing man.

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it.

He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.