The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Sherman Alexie

“The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.”

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

“I want to go to Stanford and study architecture.” “Wow, that’s cool,” I said. “But why architecture?” “Because I want to build something beautiful. Because I want to be remembered.”

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

“The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor.”

So Coach and I sat awake all night. We told each other many stories. But I never repeat those stories. That night belongs to just me and my coach.

white dads can completely disappear without ever leaving the living room. They can just BLEND into their chairs. They become their chairs.

When anybody, no matter how old they are, loses a parent, I think it hurts the same as if you were only five years old, you know? I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.

When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.

The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not.”

“If I had a dog with a face like yours, I’d shave its ass and teach it to walk backwards.”