Sherman Alexie

It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the rocks three miles away.

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

And believe me, a good piece of chicken can make anybody believe in the existence of God.

The ordinary can be like medicine.

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

I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.

I was crying because I had broken my best friend's heart.

How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each successive pain distorts the preceding.

They wanted to help me with my pain.

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

Pain is never added to pain. It multiplies.

There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. (107)

What is it like to be a Spokane Indian without wild salmon? It is like being a Christian if Jesus had never rolled back the stone and risen from his tomb.

Seems like the cold would never go away and winter would be like the bottom of my feet but then it is gone in one night and in its place comes the sun so large and laughable.

Summer coming like a car from down the highway.

I always think it's funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during the first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians.So I'm never quite sure why we eat turkey like everybody else.

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

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