Quotes from Eden Robinson

On June 22, 1793, Vancouver's Discovery and Chatham anchored in Klekane Inlet. Archibald Menzies, the ship's botanist, wrote that on the evening of June 28, they were visited by eight natives in two canoes who brought them two large salmon. This is the first known published encounter with the Haisla people.

In a pine tree behind me, an eagle waits out the rain, hunched into himself, brooding. Crows squabble, a murder chasing a raven. Seals cruise the lines of fishing nets bobbing in the water, hoping for an easy meal, the tender bellies of salmon.

The land and the ocean are living, breathing entities that supported us, clothed us, fed us, and nurtured our culture from time immemorial.

We have good people. We have selfless people. We have great leaders.

You honkies want women to be like cookies, all sweet and dainty and easy to eat. But I'm fry bread, you bitch, and I'm proud of it.

We are apart so that I will know the joy of being with you again. Take care of yourself, wherever you are. Take care of yourself, wherever you are.

You are words," the fireflies said. "Your soul is the poem. The struggle to make mortal words say the infinite unsayable is the struggle that defines sentience.

Names have power. This is the fundamental principle of magic everywhere. Call out the name of a supernatural being, and you will have its instant and undivided attention in the same way that your lost toddler will have yours the second it calls your name.

I used to think that if I could talk to the spirit world, I'd get some answers. Ha bloody ha. I wish the dead would just come out and say what they mean instead of being so passive-aggressive about the whole thing.

He didn't want to be a sucker, but he didn't want to be alone. Everything ached and all the choices felt wrong.

The moon, a sliver of white light, rose a hand above the horizon, then, tired, fell back. The purple blackness overhead faded into grey, the grey into pale blue; this was followed quickly by pastel reds and oranges, and finally, yellow rays streamed through the trees as the sun climbed.

Ma-ma-oo didn't gun the motor so we puttered along. The day promised to be a scorcher, but out on the ocean with the spray cooling on my face and the wind drying it away, the heat was bearable. I wished summer would never end. I wished I could do this all year and never have to go back to school. I wished I could pick berries and go fishing with Ma-ma-oo and spend all my days wandering.

You shouldn't dwell on it," Mrs. Jaks had said. "Forgive him and you'll live without his shadow on your lives." "The world is hard," his mom had said. "You need to be harder.

Six crows sit in our greengage tree. Half awake, I hear them speak to me in Haisla.

Hey, what's your wi-fi password?" "Ticats suck, Argos rule," Jared said. "One word, no caps, no spaces.

B'gwus is famous because of his wide range of homes. In some places, he's called Bigfoot. In other places, he's Yeti, or the Abominable Snowman, or Sasquatch. To most people, he is the equivalent of the Loch Ness monster, something silly to bring the tourist in. His image is even used to sell beer, and he is portrayed as a laid-back kind of guy, lounging on mountaintops in patio chairs, cracking open a frosty one.

He wasn't going to be alone after she died, but the world was going to be a lonelier place without her.

but it wiggled around the back of his mind like a melody that you hummed without thinking.

My mom's messed up," his mom said. "The nuns messed her up. They made her think everything Indian was evil. And that includes you and me.

You can put your strength down. I'm sitting here with you at your kitchen table. You don't need to say anything.

You okay?" Jared said. "You've never called me Aunt before. Bring it in. Come on, gimme hugs." "Can we not make a big deal?" "No. Deals will be big.

Realize that the plumpest berries are over the graves.

Aiden, we're going to sing 'Let It Go' now. I'm not trying to rile you up. I just want to see if the octopus thing reacts, all right?" He held his hand out for Eliza. "No," she said. "Sing something else. Please, Jared." "Okay, no Elsa. How about Nickelback?" "I don't think monsters are scared of Nickelback." "You'd be surprised.

Maybe I shud've let Mave have u, she wrote. A good time to practise detachment, Jared thought. Separate the emotions from the conversation. Treat it like information, because that's all this was. Information.