-
My only purpose is to teach children to rebel against authority figures.
Sherman Alexie -
Okay, so maybe I'm romantic... but somebody is supposed to be romantic. Some warrior is supposed to go to war against the imperial forces of cynicism and irony. I am a sentimental soldier.
Sherman Alexie
-
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.
Sherman Alexie -
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.
Sherman Alexie -
If it's fiction, then it better be true.
Sherman Alexie -
Since Jesus was human then he most assuredly farted and burped. And if God did create us in God's image then God must fart and burp as well.
Sherman Alexie -
In a real-world way, my gifts are very limited in terms of what I can do.
Sherman Alexie -
I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children
Sherman Alexie
-
I recognize now that the conditions that Indians are living in are the conditions that poor people everywhere are living in.
Sherman Alexie -
I know a lot about being white - because I have to, I live in the white world. A white person doesn't live in the Indian world. I have to be white every day.
Sherman Alexie -
What inspires a poem for me is usually a moment.
Sherman Alexie -
Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together. You can do it.
Sherman Alexie -
Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?
Sherman Alexie -
At the halfway point of any drunken night, there is a moment when an Indian realizes he cannot turn back toward tradition and that he has no map to guide him toward the future.
Sherman Alexie
-
The dream he needed most was the dream that frightened him more.
Sherman Alexie -
I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.
Sherman Alexie -
There have been players with Indian heritage, but there hasn't been a Native-American professional basketball player who became a regular for all sorts of social and political reasons.
Sherman Alexie -
I love to scare the already terrified assholes.
Sherman Alexie -
And I couldn't make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren't supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren't supposed to dream big, either. We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly.
Sherman Alexie -
And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.
Sherman Alexie
-
The people who loved me when I was seven years old love my books, and the people who didn't like me when I was seven years old don't like my books.
Sherman Alexie -
All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot of Native American literature is stuck in one idea: sort of spiritual, environmentalist Indians. And I want to portray everyday lives. I think by doing that, by portraying the ordinary lives of Indians, perhaps people learn something new.
Sherman Alexie -
That's one more thing people don't know about Indians: We love to talk dirty.
Sherman Alexie -
Somebody dies and people eat your food. Funny how that works.
Sherman Alexie