We Indians really should be better liars, considering how often we've been lied to.

A really good stand-up comic is a poet; it's about the use of language. It can be really poetic. And I like politically conscious comedy.

In a sense, you're always mythologizing your life; it's always an effort to make yourself epic. At least in fiction you can lie and sort of justify your delusion about your "epicness." But when you're writing a memoir, you're trying to make your life epic and it's not - nobody's life is.

Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.

I felt so conflicted about having fled the rez as a kid that I created a whole literary career that left me there.

When I had no money, and a great book came out, I couldn't get it. I had to wait. I love the idea that I have hardcover books here and at home that I haven't read yet. That's how I view that I'm rich. I have hardcover books I may never read.

Spiritual matters should be private.