Sherman Alexie Quotes
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I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.
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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.
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There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away.
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Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.
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Funny how a little politeness can change people's minds.
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If you teach kids how to tell stories, they have a better chance at everything.
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Read. Read 1000 pages for every 1 page that you write.
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The problem for me with liberals is that we've abdicated our moral responsibility to the universe.
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I think most Native American literature is unreadable by the vast majority of Native Americans. Generally speaking Indians don't read books. It's not a book culture. That's why I'm trying to make movies. Indians go to movies; Indians own video recorders.
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My father is an amazing man.
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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.
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Only in rock music and the literary world you see so many ugly white guys with beautiful women. That says a lot about the women, their character. They're attracted to more than surface.
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I don't think the revisionist historians are accurate. I think their agendas are clouded by selfishness and anger and rage.
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All I owe the world is my art.
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Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?
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He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.
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Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.
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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.
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I recognize now that the conditions that Indians are living in are the conditions that poor people everywhere are living in.
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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.
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...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.
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That's how I do this life sometimes by making the ordinary just like magic and just like a card trick and just like a mirror and just like disappearing. Every Indian learns how to be a magician and learns how to misdirect attention and the dark hand is always quicker than the white eye and no matter how close you get to my heart you will never find out my secrets and I'll never tell you and I'll never show you the same trick twice. I'm traveling heavy with illusions.
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Humor was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds.
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I'll quit eating meat when you get a cow out here to beat me at a poetry slam. Only so many words rhyme with 'Mooo.' I mean, yes, we're supposed to be better stewards; yes, we're supposed to take care of the earth; yes, we're supposed to honor the sacrifices made by the animals; yes yes yes yes yes, but dammit, we're in charge, and you know why? It's because of these [holding out thumbs]...Maybe you think that carrots are less important than cows. I think they're equal, especially in a sauce.