I was studying the sky like I was an astronomer, except it was daytime and I didn't have a telescope, so I was just an idiot.

I end up feeling like a spy in the house of ethnicity, you know? Because people will talk around me as they would talk around the people in their cultural group. So I get to hear all the secrets and jokes and you know, I'm a part of every community because of the way I look.

When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.

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

I don't think the revisionist historians are accurate. I think their agendas are clouded by selfishness and anger and rage.

I remember when people used to think I was smart. I remember when people used to think my brain was useful. Damaged by water, sure. And ready to seizure at any moment. But still useful, and maybe even a little bit beautiful and sacred and magical.

The problem is that too many adults think their kids' lives are simple, or they try to make their lives simple, when their emotional lives are just as complicated as ours. They might have a few less tools to deal with it because they're young, but the emotions are all the same, and the subject matter is all the same.