The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

She is the prettiest and strongest and funniest person who ever spent twenty-three hours a day alone in a basement.

Dad got stopped three times for DWI: Driving While Indian.

If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.

life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.”

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

It was all booze and God, booze and God, booze and God.

“I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,” I said. “By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not.”

“Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don’t want to play.”

Reservations were meant to be prisons, you know? Indians were supposed to move onto reservations and die.

I was not alone in my loneliness.