There was only the dark infinity in which nothing was. And something happened. At the distance of a star something happened, and everything began. The Word did not come into being, but it was. It did not break upon the silence, but it was older than the silence and the silence was made of it.

I sometimes think the contemporary white American is more culturally deprived than the Indian.

A word has power in and of itself. It comes from nothing into sound and meaning; it gives origin to all things.

The first word gives origin to the second, the first and second to the third, and the third to the fourth, and so on. You cannot begin with the second word.

Your imagination comes to life, and this, you think, is where Creation was begun.

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it.

Indians are marvelous storytellers. In some ways, that oral tradition is stronger than the written tradition.