I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.

Pain is never added to pain. It multiplies.

I recognize now that the conditions that Indians are living in are the conditions that poor people everywhere are living in.

If I were a doctor nobody would be inviting me to talk to reservations. I'd be a different person. Writers can influence more people.

Last September 16th, I was walking in downtown Seattle when this pick-up truck pulls up in front of me. Guy leans out the window and yells, "Go back to your own country," and I was laughing so hard because it wasn't so much a hate crime as a crime of irony.

My father is an amazing man.

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