I've come to the point in my life where I encourage young Native Americans to become much more selfish about their personal needs and wants.

We can all learn from every text. Reading the work that disgusts you can only strengthen your core beliefs. I could teach a semester-long course based only on reading the local telephone book. All stories can be taught in valuable ways.

I think that white women are more apt to read laterally. So I think there's some strong identification for women, and their political and social positions, and minorities. I think that the political power of, let's say, the average Indian man and a white woman are pretty equal.

We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.

I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.

Well, as a native, as a colonized people you do live in the in between. The thing is I'm native. But necessarily because I'm a member of the country, I'm also a White American.

My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.