Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.
The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.
If you’re good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can’t be wrong.
Don’t live up to your stereotypes.
I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That’s right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that’s kind of perverted or maybe it’s just romantic and highly intelligent.
Read. Read 1000 pages for every 1 page that you write.
If it’s fiction, then it better be true.
When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.
If you teach kids how to tell stories, they have a better chance at everything.
When you’re depressed, you know, it’s like the world has ended. Even getting out of bed takes the most massive amount of effort. But when you’re manic, oh, it’s so addicting. You know, I have finished novels in two weeks in manic stages.
It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the rocks three miles away.
I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.
If I wasn’t writing poems I’d be washing my hands all the time.
Well, as a native, as a colonized people you do live in the in between. The thing is I’m native. But necessarily because I’m a member of the country, I’m also a White American.
Books and beer are the best and worst defense.
I’ve come to the point in my life where I encourage young Native Americans to become much more selfish about their personal needs and wants.
I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
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.
We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization.
You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don’t realize it.