Sherman Alexie Quotes

Well, in the early days of humans, the community was our only protection against predators, and agai...

Like the coffin was settling down for a long, long nap, for a forever nap.

I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,' I said. 'By Black and White. By Indian and Whi...

I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. T...

Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.

He was going to punish me now. He couldn't beat me up with his old man fists, but he could hurt me w...

son," Mr. P said. "You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away fro...

...And nostalgia is a cancer. Nostalgia will fill your heart up with tumors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'...

So I guess you were hopelessly romantic and easily distracted, a B-plus mother, certainly good enoug...

Corliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a ...

And then I realized that my sister was trying to LIVE a romance novel. Man, that takes courage and i...

Junior based all of his decisions on his dreams and visions, which created a lot of problems.

Thomas Builds-the-Fire's stories climbed into your clothes like sad, gave you itches that could not ...

He wanted the songs, the stories, to save everybody.

If God were good, why would he create Rush Limbaugh?

He sang 'Stairway to Heaven' in four different languages but never knew where that staircase stood.

Poetry = Anger x Imagination

If you kill a black man, the world is silent. You can hear a garage door opening from twenty blocks ...

Mick had once come across one of Wilson't books and was surprised to see his face on the back cover....

They called me an Indian pig. Oh, and they called me a prairie n*****. Pretty colorful, enit?""I sup...

Marie felt a sudden urge to smash the glass, break down the door, pull down the building. She wanted...

Office Peone looked at John and wondered what mental illness he had. The Seattle streets were filled...

Despite all of the time he spent in Big Heart's, Wilson had never come to understand the social live...

For the mentally disturbed, Marie knew these sandwich visits might be the only dependable moments in...

I'm dying from about ninety-nine kinds of shame

They put me in a holding cell with a black kid and a white kid and a Chinese kid. We're the United N...

What kind of life can you have in a house without books?

I hate my country. There are so many rich people who don't share their shit. They're like spoiled li...

I learned how to stop crying.I learned how to hide inside of myself.I learned how to be somebody els...

I would close my eyes and dream of something strong, dream of horses exploding, rising into the air,...

He felt split in two, one crazy man eating hair and one rational man watching a crazy man eat hair. ...

My father is an amazing man.

When my female friends are leftBy horrid spouses and lovers,I commiserate. I send gifts-Powwow songs...

Writing is a lonely business.

My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.

Teenagers read millions of books every year. They read for entertainment and for education. They rea...

Like officer Dave.He's never said much about his life, but I can tell he's scarred. And he knows I'm...

But, in the Trump aftermath, I've measured the costsAnd benefits of loving those who don't loveStran...

Read. Read 1000 pages for every 1 page that you write.

As a child, I read because books–violent and not, blasphemous and not, terrifying and not–were the m...

Gay people were seen as magical, too. I mean, like in many cultures, men were viewed as warriors and...

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically ...

In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was ve...

When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.

My father was sleepless most of his life. So by the age of five, I was awake with him all night long...

So Lightning says to Mud,“What would happen if I struck your blood?”And Mud says, “Brother, It would...

Sure, we thought the acresThat we tilled were sacred,But how could we have knownThat wheat can haunt...

Walk the midway and hear the carnival barker.Come see the freak named after his deceased father.Come...

I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.

I wanted to ask my father about his regrets. I wanted to ask him what was the worst thing he'd ever ...

Lies have short shelf lives. Lies go bad. Lies rot and stink up the joint.

Then she tells me that Jesus isstill herebecause Jesus wasonce here.And parts of Jesus arestill floa...

You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.

Here’s a fact: Some people want to live moreThan others do.

My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so ...

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase w...

Shit," he said. "I don't know why you're feeling sorry for yourself because you ain't had to fight a...

What is it like to be a Spokane Indian without wild salmon? It is like being a Christian if Jesus ha...

An Indian’s wealth   Is determined by what they lose And not by what they save.

Great pain is repetitive. Grief is repetitive.

I didn’t yet know that romantic heroes—famous and not—are usually aimless nomads in disguise.

I would guess, perhaps too optimistically, that nearly ever racist believes it is morally wrong to b...

There are family mysteries I cannot solve. There are family mysteries I am unwilling to solve.

I often wonder why I am the one who remember all the pain?

You’re always making up stuff from the past,” she said. “And the stuff you imagine is always better ...

It's not oil that runs the world, it's shame.

Pain is never added to pain. It multiplies.

If it's fiction, then it better be true.

Like a good Indian, he knew when to talk and when to remain silent. Like a good Indian, he knew ther...

He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thi...

Oh, no, no, you've got that all wrong. You're not required to respect elders. After all, most people...

Last night I missed two free throws which would have won the game against the best team in the state...

The streetlight outside my house shines on tonight and I'm watching it like it could give me a visio...

They're all gone, my tribe is gone. Those blankets they gave us, infected with smallpox, have killed...

I'd only seen Julius play a few times, but he had that gift, that grace, those fingers like a goddam...

Coyote, who is the creator of all of us, was sitting on his cloud the day after he created Indians. ...

The white people always want to fight someone and they always get the dark-skinned people to do the ...

It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the ro...

More and more, he heard his spine playing stick games through his skin, singing old dusty words, the...

How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constru...

Can you hear the dreams crackling like a campfire? Can you hear the dreams sweeping through the pine...

Years ago, homosexuals were given special status within the tribe. They had powerful medicine. I thi...

Seems like the cold would never go away and winter would be like the bottom of my feet but then it i...

Thomas Builds-the-Fire closed his eyes and told this story:“I remember when I had this dream that to...

The ordinary can be like medicine.

That's how I do this life sometimes by making the ordinary just like magic and just like a card tric...

Summer coming like a car from down the highway.

Your past is a skeleton walking one step behind you, and your future is a a skeleton walking one ste...

I got in a fight with my girlfriend," I said. "I was just driving around, blowing off steam, you kno...

You must be a rich man," she said. "Not much of a warrior, though. You keep letting me sneak up on y...

Everyone I have lost in the closing of a doorthe click of the lockis not forgotten, theydo not die b...

But how can I get enough experience if they don't give me a chance to get experience?

A bullet only costs about two cents, and anybody can afford that.

I'm quite aware of my differences. I wouldn't classify them as weird

[Or perhaps my friends should have realized that they shouldn't have left behind the FRICKING REASON...

You read a book for the story, for each of its words," Gordy said, "and you draw your cartoons for t...

I always think it's funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrim...

But despite the fact that Reardan is a tiny town, people can still be strangers to each other.

Somebody dies and people eat your food. Funny how that works.

I was emotionally erect.

All of these white kids and teachers, who were so suspicious of me when I first arrived, had learned...