Quotes from Tomson Highway

There's a major fault in Western society. It makes room for only one god, and in only one gender. There's no balance, no co-existence, no partnership.

Only old people go to church, when they know they're running out of time.

Where, exactly, was this hell?

He's not finished talking to us," Gabriel shot back, suddenly gripped by hatred of the priest, of the power he wielded. Father Bouchard knew precisely whom Gabriel's fury was meant for. But he knew, too, that Holy Orders were as impregnable as granite.

Show me the bastard who come up with this notion that who's running the goddamn show is some grumpy, embittered, sexually frustrated old fart with a long white beard hiding like a gutless coward behind some puffed-up cloud and I'll slice his goddamn balls off.

Weesageechak for sure. The clown who bridges humanity and God-a God who laughs, a God who's here, not for guilt, not for suffering, but for a good time.

Yes, but Father," he wanted to say from the back seat of a rapidly filling bus, "you never told us how to spend time alone in the midst of half a million people. Here, stars don't shine at night, trees don't speak.

These church-goers," Gabriel felt obliged to fill the silence, "they talk about respect, and love and peace and all that jazz, and the minute they're out of that church, they're just as mean and selfish as they were before. It's as if going to church gives them the right to act like, well... like assholes.

English is so hierarchical. In Cree, we don't have animate-inanimate comparisons between things. Animals have souls that are equal to ours. Rocks have souls, trees have souls. Trees are 'who,' not 'what.

There's a major fault in Western society. It makes room for only one god, and in only one gender. There's no balance, no co-existence, no partnership.

The Trickster, of course," Gabriel finally answered himself, "Weesageechak for sure. The clown who bridges humanity and God - a God who laughs, a God who's here, not for guilt, not for suffering, but for a good time. Except this time, the Trickster representing God as a woman, a goddess in fur. Like in this picture. I've always thought that, ever since we were little kids. I mean, if Native languages have no gender, then why should we? And why, for that matter, should God?

Don't mourn me. Be joyful.

I mean, if Native languages have no gender, then why should we? And why, for that matter, should God?

What I did, I did on my own. Don't mourn me. Be joyful.

So although in one language, humankind is forbidden to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, in the other it is not only permitted, it is encouraged. That is precisely what that goddamn tree is there for, for humankind to suck from its fruit, and suck and suck and suck and suck, thirty times a day if necessary.

At night, when the streets of your cities and villages are silent, they will throng with the returning hosts that once filled them, and still love this beautiful land. The white man will never be alone. Let him be just and deal kindly with my people. For the dead are not powerless.

I mean, if Native languages have no gender, then why should we?

We're Indian! We have a right to conduct our own religious ceremonies, just like everyone else!

Yet he knew that destiny played with lives; the most a parent could do was help steer.

But Gabriel saw people talking to the sky, the sky replying. And he knew he had to learn this dance. Someday soon, he may need it.

if machipoowamoowin, bad dream power, was obvioulsy powerful enough to snuff out a human life, then would not mithoopoowamoowin, good dream power, be as strong?

All native languages are in danger of dying in Canada. We must each do our part in any way we can to preserve these languages. Cree is my native tongue, the first language I spoke when I came into this earth, so I feel it's my responsibility to do whatever I can to help preserve it.

Language preservation is like saving the birds. We don't want birds to go extinct. Imagine Canada without the sound of a loon. It's a classic Canadian sound. Canada would lose part of its soul if loons went extinct. It's the same thing with languages. Native languages, in this country, or in any country, are part of its sonic environment. It's part of our connection with the earth. We must each do our part in any way we can to preserve these languages.

Essentially a comic, clownish sort of character, his role is to teach us about the nature and the meaning of existence on the planet Earth; he straddles the consciousness of man and that of God, the Great Spirit.