quotes by Sherman Alexie
(showing 1- 20 of 20)
"He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing."
— Sherman Alexie (The Toughest Indian in the World)
— Sherman Alexie (The Toughest Indian in the World)
"At the halfway point of any drunken night, there is a moment when an Indian realizes he cannot turn back toward tradition and that he has no map to guide him toward the future."
— Sherman Alexie
— Sherman Alexie
"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
— Sherman Alexie
— Sherman Alexie
"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."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
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."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
tags:
death,
grandmothers
3 people liked it
"Everyone I have lost
in the closing of a door
the click of the lock
is not forgotten, they
do not die but remain
within the soft edges
of the earth, the ash
of house fires and cancer
in sin and forgiveness
huddled under old blankets
dreaming their way into
my hands, my heart
closing tight like fists.
- "Indian Boy Love Song #1""
— Sherman Alexie (The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems)
in the closing of a door
the click of the lock
is not forgotten, they
do not die but remain
within the soft edges
of the earth, the ash
of house fires and cancer
in sin and forgiveness
huddled under old blankets
dreaming their way into
my hands, my heart
closing tight like fists.
- "Indian Boy Love Song #1""
— Sherman Alexie (The Business of Fancydancing: Stories and Poems)
tags:
poetry
3 people liked it
"Imagination is the politics of dreams; imagination turns every word into a bottle rocket. . . . Imagine every day is Independence Day and save us from traveling the river changed; save us from hitchhiking the long road home. Imagine an escape. Imagine that your own shadow on the wall is a perfect door. Imagine a song stronger than penicillin. Imagine a spring with water that mends broken bones. Imagine a drum which wraps itself around your heart. Imagine a story that puts wood in the fireplace."
— Sherman Alexie
— Sherman Alexie
tags:
1 person liked it
"We're all travelling heavy with illusions."
— Sherman Alexie (The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven)
— Sherman Alexie (The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven)
"Drinking would shut down my seeing and my hearing and my feeling," she used to say. "Why would I want to be in the world if I couldn't touch the world with all of my senses intact?"
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"We only know how to lose and be lost."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"I didn't know what to say to her. What do you say to people when they ask how it feels to lose everything? When every planet in your solar system has exploded?"
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"I draw because words are too unpredictable.
I draw because words are too limited.
If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning.
But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it.
If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, "That's a flower."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
I draw because words are too limited.
If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning.
But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it.
If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, "That's a flower."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"My school and my tribe are so poor and sad that we have to study from the same dang books our parents studied from. That is absolutely the saddest thing in the world."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
"she wanted to be buried in a coffin filled with used paperbacks. (from "Teh Little Indians")"
— Sherman Alexie
— Sherman Alexie
"On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City
The white woman across the aisle from me says 'Look,
look at all the history, that house
on the hill there is over two hundred years old, '
as she points out the window past me
into what she has been taught. I have learned
little more about American history during my few days
back East than what I expected and far less
of what we should all know of the tribal stories
whose architecture is 15,000 years older
than the corners of the house that sits
museumed on the hill. 'Walden Pond, '
the woman on the train asks, 'Did you see Walden Pond? '
and I don't have a cruel enough heart to break
her own by telling her there are five Walden Ponds
on my little reservation out West
and at least a hundred more surrounding Spokane,
the city I pretended to call my home. 'Listen, '
I could have told her. 'I don't give a sh*t
about Walden. I know the Indians were living stories
around that pond before Walden's grandparents were born
and before his grandparents' grandparents were born.
I'm tired of hearing about Don-f*cking-Henley saving it, too,
because that's redundant. If Don Henley's brothers and sisters
and mothers and father hadn't come here in the first place
then nothing would need to be saved.'
But I didn't say a word to the woman about Walden
Pond because she smiled so much and seemed delighted
that I thought to bring her an orange juice
back from the food car. I respect elders
of every color. All I really did was eat
my tasteless sandwich, drink my Diet Pepsi
and nod my head whenever the woman pointed out
another little piece of her country's history
while I, as all Indians have done
since this war began, made plans
for what I would do and say the next time
somebody from the enemy thought I was one of their own.
"
— Sherman Alexie
The white woman across the aisle from me says 'Look,
look at all the history, that house
on the hill there is over two hundred years old, '
as she points out the window past me
into what she has been taught. I have learned
little more about American history during my few days
back East than what I expected and far less
of what we should all know of the tribal stories
whose architecture is 15,000 years older
than the corners of the house that sits
museumed on the hill. 'Walden Pond, '
the woman on the train asks, 'Did you see Walden Pond? '
and I don't have a cruel enough heart to break
her own by telling her there are five Walden Ponds
on my little reservation out West
and at least a hundred more surrounding Spokane,
the city I pretended to call my home. 'Listen, '
I could have told her. 'I don't give a sh*t
about Walden. I know the Indians were living stories
around that pond before Walden's grandparents were born
and before his grandparents' grandparents were born.
I'm tired of hearing about Don-f*cking-Henley saving it, too,
because that's redundant. If Don Henley's brothers and sisters
and mothers and father hadn't come here in the first place
then nothing would need to be saved.'
But I didn't say a word to the woman about Walden
Pond because she smiled so much and seemed delighted
that I thought to bring her an orange juice
back from the food car. I respect elders
of every color. All I really did was eat
my tasteless sandwich, drink my Diet Pepsi
and nod my head whenever the woman pointed out
another little piece of her country's history
while I, as all Indians have done
since this war began, made plans
for what I would do and say the next time
somebody from the enemy thought I was one of their own.
"
— Sherman Alexie
"I draw because words are too unpredictable.
I draw because words are too limited.
If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then on a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning.
But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it.
If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the worldcan look at it and say, "That's a flower.""
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)
I draw because words are too limited.
If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then on a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning.
But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it.
If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the worldcan look at it and say, "That's a flower.""
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)