Sherman Alexie Quotes
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Listen you have to read a book three times before you know it.
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Humor was an antiseptic that cleaned the deepest of personal wounds.
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I've learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children
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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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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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He looked into the crowd for approval, saw his mother and father. He waved and they waved back. Smiles and Indian teeth. They were both drunk. Everything familiar and welcome. Everything beautiful.
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If you teach kids how to tell stories, they have a better chance at everything.
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My parents banned nothing, though the Christian fundamentalists in my tribe held book-and-record burnings every now and again. So, yes, fundamentalist assholes can also be brown-skinned.
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I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
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I ain't interested in the truth. I'm interested in the way things should be.
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We can all learn from every text. Reading the work that disgusts you can only strengthen your core beliefs. I could teach a semester-long course based only on reading the local telephone book. All stories can be taught in valuable ways.
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When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing. And so, laughing and crying, we said good-bye to my grandmother. And when we said goodbye to one grandmother, we said good-bye to all of them. Each funeral was a funeral for all of us. We lived and died together. All of us laughed when they lowered my grandmother into the ground. And all of us laughed when they covered her with dirt. And all of us laughed as we walked and drove and rode our way back to our lonely, lonely houses.
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I love to scare the already terrified assholes.
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How self-centered, how arrogant... Imagine the awesome privilege of living in a society where you get to choose what you eat at each and every meal. When I was a kid, I was a vegetarian and a vegan for long stretches... I was a commodity cheese-atarian.
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All art is exploitation.
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The dream he needed most was the dream that frightened him more.
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We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.
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Like any good shaman, professional baseball player, or politician, my mother always answered questions with questions.
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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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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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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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I'm quite aware of my differences. I wouldn't classify them as weird
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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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If it's fiction, then it better be true.