Sherman Alexie Quotes
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That's one more thing people don't know about Indians: We love to talk dirty.
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I love to scare the already terrified assholes.
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Is revenge a circle inside of a circle inside of a circle?
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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.
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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.
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Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions.
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If it's fiction, then it better be true.
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I look more Indian when I'm serious.
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When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
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Somebody dies and people eat your food. Funny how that works.
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The dream he needed most was the dream that frightened him more.
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Non-Indian writers usually say "Great Spirit," "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four-Legged, and Winged." Mixed-blood writers usually say "Creator, "Mother Earth," "Two-Legged, Four- Legged, and Winged." Indian writers usually say "God," "Mother Earth," "Human Being, Dog, and Bird."
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White Americans have a short memory.
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In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn't like that at all. And he told her one time, 'You shouldn't go on the rez if you're white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.'
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She was in pain and I loved her, sort of loved her, I guess, so I kind of had to love her pain, too.
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I guess a witness is all I am. I think as a writer, you're pretty removed. Writing is a very selfish, individualistic pursuit. So in that sense I'm a witness because I'm not participating.
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When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.
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If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.
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In a real-world way, my gifts are very limited in terms of what I can do.
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We only know how to lose and be lost.