My name is Sherman J. Alexie Jr., and I am an insomniac.

We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization.

And then I realized that my sister was trying to LIVE a romance novel. Man, that takes courage and imagination. Well, it also took some degree of mental illness, too, but I was suddenly happy for her. And a little scared. Well, a lot scared.

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.

I grew up in a storytelling culture, a tribal culture, but also in an American storytelling culture.

I'm quite aware of my differences. I wouldn't classify them as weird

I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.