Unlike landed white men, she didn't need to climb mountains to experience mystic panic. All she needed was to set her alarm dock for the next morning, wake when it rang, and go to class.

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it.

My only purpose is to teach children to rebel against authority figures.

All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot of Native American literature is stuck in one idea: sort of spiritual, environmentalist Indians. And I want to portray everyday lives. I think by doing that, by portraying the ordinary lives of Indians, perhaps people learn something new.

When a glass sits on a table here, people don't wonder if it's half filled or half empty. They just hope it's good beer.

Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.

Nervous means you want to play. Scared means you don't want to play.