Sherman Alexie Quotes
-
I think that white women are more apt to read laterally. So I think there's some strong identification for women, and their political and social positions, and minorities. I think that the political power of, let's say, the average Indian man and a white woman are pretty equal.
-
One play can change your momentum forever.
-
I used to sleep with my books in piles all over my bed and sometimes they were the only thing keeping me warm and always the only thing keeping me alive. Books are the best and worst defense.
-
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.
-
Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.
-
Also because I'm ambiguously ethnic looking, you know, I come to New York and I can be anything. People generally think I'm half of whatever they are.
-
In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang onto the good and sober moments tightly.
-
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
-
If a parent doesn't want his/her child to read a book then there is always an alternative text to read. But the book banners want to control what every child reads.
-
Summer coming like a car from down the highway.
-
...it's like this white-Indian thing has gotten out of control. And the thing with the blacks and the Mexicans. Everybody blaming everybody...I don't know what happened. I can't explain it all. Just look around at the world. Look at this country. Things just aren't like they used to be.' 'Son, things have never been like what you think they used to be.
-
When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.
-
[F]rank knew he was guilty of arrogance and misanthropy, but he compensated by being kind to strangers and tipping really well at restaurants.
-
I write less about alcohol, less and less and less. You 're an addict - so of course you write about the thing you love most. I loved alcohol the most, loved it more than anybody or anything. That's what I wrote about. And it certainly accounted for some great writing. But it accounted for two or three years of good writing - it would never account for 20 years of good writing. I would have turned into Charles Bukowski. He wrote 10,000 poems and 10 of them were great.
-
At least half the country thinks the mascot issue is insignificant. But I think it's indicative of the ways in which Indians have no cultural power. We're still placed in the past. So we're either in the past or we're only viewed through casinos.
-
The ordinary can be like medicine.
-
I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.
-
All I owe the world is my art.
-
Bush has not read enough books to have a developed moral sense. The fewer books you read, the easier it is to become fundamental. In some ways my antiwar stand here is also a stand on anti-literacy. Someone should get G.W. into a reading program, get him to join a book club. Have him read Hamlet, King Lear.
-
What inspires a poem for me is usually a moment.
-
You want the good life? You live where white people live, you go to school where white people go to school, and you shop where white people shop.
-
I hear poetry whenever I turn on the radio. Eminem is a better poet than just about everybody. He's better than Billy Collins; he's better than Richard Wilbur; he's better than me.
-
I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.
-
If you care about something enough, it’s going to make you cry. But you have to use it. Use your tears. Use your pain. Use your fear. Get mad. Arnold, get mad.