Quotes By Sherman Alexie
Well, I think the worst part about tribalism is its tendency to fundamentalize, and if I can fight fundamentalism in any of its forms I'm happy.
Sherman Alexie
I don't know what any individual should do about crossing her own borders. I only know that I live a happier, more adventurous life, by crossing borders.
Sherman Alexie
When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
Sherman Alexie
My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.
Sherman Alexie
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
Sherman Alexie
We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization.
Sherman Alexie
My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.
Sherman Alexie
There isn't a lot of poverty literature in the young-adult world. And I don't know why that is, but I think certainly I felt a gap.
Sherman Alexie
I grew up in a storytelling culture, a tribal culture, but also in an American storytelling culture.
Sherman Alexie
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.
Sherman Alexie
You'd never know it from reading the rest of the Native writers, but Indians actually grew up with American pop culture.
Sherman Alexie
You want the good life? You live where white people live, you go to school where white people go to school, and you shop where white people shop.
Sherman Alexie
There have been players with Indian heritage, but there hasn't been a Native-American professional basketball player who became a regular for all sorts of social and political reasons.
Sherman Alexie
My father was sleepless most of his life. So by the age of five, I was awake with him all night long, watching bad television or we'd lie in the same bed, and I'd read my comic books while he read his latest spy or mystery novel.
Sherman Alexie
I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.
Sherman Alexie
My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.
Sherman Alexie
I had the feeling I was going to be successful, and I didn't want to be another disappointing Indian.
Sherman Alexie
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.'
Sherman Alexie
The problem is that too many adults think their kids' lives are simple, or they try to make their lives simple, when their emotional lives are just as complicated as ours. They might have a few less tools to deal with it because they're young, but the emotions are all the same, and the subject matter is all the same.
Sherman Alexie