As The Crow Flies Quotes

“Stay calm, have courage, and watch for signs.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“Indian Alzheimer's" - where you forget everything but the grudges.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“In a perfect cinematic world we would’ve captured the bad guys in spectacular fashion with explosions, car chases, and a parting kiss. She would’ve been played by Ava Gardner, and I would’ve been played by Robert Taylor. I looked at her. “I was wrong.” She looked back at me, and I could feel her eyes on the side of my face.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“You keep going, and you hope for the best, and sometimes, maybe not very often, your hopes come true.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“I have gotten to the age where I try and let other people solve their own problems." "What age is that, anyway?”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“Rarely do you see the promise of a man in a boy, but you almost always see the threat of a woman in a girl—and sometimes the threat is not hollow.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“and I thought about what Henry had said one time about the world being hard on little things.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“That librarian over at the college is mean. I don’t like to mess with her; she’s got that Indian Alzheimer’s. Um hmm, yes, it is so.” I trailed my eyes from Lonnie Little Bird to the rain-slick surface of the asphalt—Lame Deer’s main street being washed clean of all our sins. “What’s that mean, Lonnie?” “That’s where you forget everything but the grudges.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE OVERCOMES THE LOVE OF POWER, THE WORLD SHALL KNOW PEACE.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“50 percent of police shot in the country on an annual basis shoot themselves. I’m not talking about suicide, but about officers who accidentally fire into their off-hand while drawing or into the strong-side leg while reholstering. Another 30 percent are shot by other cops, and 10 percent after that get shot by people who take their weapons away from them.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“I figured if I was gonna die. I'd at least have my say.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“this”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“There is a common humanity in all of us, and if you need something from somebody, you’d better understand that—it makes the job easier. Clarence might be guilty and we need to be aware because we are in the suspicion business, but he’s also a man who just lost someone who was very close to him.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“...there was this Indian woman hitchhiking back to the Rez in the middle of the night and this white woman picks her up. The Indian woman says, 'Hey, thanks for picking me up. What are you doing out on the road this late?' The white woman points to a bottle in a brown paper bag sitting on the seat between them and says, 'I got this bottle of wine for my husband.' The Indian woman nodded, 'Good trade.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“notepad”
― Craig Johnson, As the Crow Flies

“I took the luxury of watching the crows playing tag above our heads for a moment more, the graceful arc of their patterns intertwining in figure eights of infinity. That was probably our job here, to keep going and to do it with as much artistry and beauty as our hearts could bear.”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“He turned, and I followed him toward Rezdawg as Wiggins called after us. “Hey, when are you going to give me that truck of yours?” He waved the kid away. “When I am through with it!” We slammed the doors, and I listened as he ground the starter. On the fifth try, it caught and shuddered a cloud of bluish smoke that we had to back through. “He can have it now as far as I’m concerned.” We”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“The Cedar Man also began looking familiar, and I recognized him as Willis Weist, who had disappointed my mother; she had observed him going to as many as four white-person church services each Sunday. A confirmed Methodist, she’d finally asked him which one he liked the best, to which he had responded, “Pentecostal.” My heartbroken mother asked why. He’d shrugged, “Because they have the best potluck dinners.” There”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“Hey, there was this Indian woman hitchhiking back to the Rez in the middle of the night and this white woman picks her up. The Indian woman says, ‘Hey, thanks for picking me up. What are you doing out on the road this late?’ The white woman points to a bottle in a brown paper bag sitting on the seat between them and says, ‘I got this bottle of wine for my husband.’ The Indian woman nodded, ‘Good trade.’” Lolo”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“He studied me. “You were in Nam?” I nodded. “Yep.” He turned to Lolo. “Hey, Chief, how many Vietnam vets does it take to screw in a lightbulb?” She stared at him. “I don’t know.” He pointed his cigar at her in an agitated fashion. “That’s right, because you weren’t there, man!” We”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“I looked at the sky with its patchwork of sun and storm clouds—the devil must be beating his wife indeed. I bet I was the only one who used that phrase anymore. I”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“He jumped in the bed and I closed the tailgate twice because, of course, the first time it didn’t line up. Vic rolled down the driver’s-side window of my truck. “You’re going to be all right up here playing cowboy with the Indians?”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“Lonnie smiled and nodded as Herbert repocketed the cutter and produced a chopped-down, brass Zippo lighter, the one that he had carried in the seventies in Vietnam. “St. Peter leaned down to the Crow woman and asked her if she had anything she wanted to say, and she told him that to her, there”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“for sixty-one days.” I began questioning the makeup of the negotiation team I’d brought with me to convince the chief of the Northern Cheyenne tribe that he should allow my daughter to be married at Crazy Head Springs. “Don’t call the White Buffalo a joint; it’s the nerve center of the reservation.” My undersheriff, Victoria Moretti,”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies

“led us inside, carefully closing the door of the windowless room behind him. We chose a few straight chairs, and he rounded his desk. His face and his expression were flat with the exhaustion that goes along with public service, but there was also a deep-seated concern. It was an expression I saw in the mirror every morning. “So, it wasn’t an accident.” “We’re thinking not.” He sat and shared his sadness with us. “So, how can I help you?” I waited as Lolo asked the inevitable. “We were wondering if you knew of anybody who might wish Audrey ill or might want to do her harm.” “You mean to the point of…?” He seemed dismissive of the idea, so I softened the angle of the conversation. “We’re not absolutely sure that that’s the case, but we’re going to follow up on all the possibilities.” I glanced at the framed photos Herbert had on his desk—there was one of Audrey, one of the Two Two mother and”
― Craig Johnson, As The Crow Flies