They have assumed the names and gestures of their enemies, but have held on to their own, secret souls; and in this there is a resistance and an overcoming, a long outwaiting.

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

The Kiowas reckoned their stature by the distance they could see.

My line of vision was such that the creature filled the moon like a fossil. It had gone there, I thought, to live and die, for there, of all places, was its small definition made whole and eternal

There is a great good in returning to a landscape that has had extraordinary meaning in one's life. It happens that we return to such places in our minds irresistibly. There are certain villages and towns, mountains and plains that, having seen them walked in them lived in them even for a day, we keep forever in the mind's eye. They become indispensable to our well-being; they define us, and we say, I am who I am because I have been there, or there.

Her name is Ago, and she belonged to the last culture to evolve in North America.

I wonder if, in the dark night of the sea, the octopus dreams of me.