My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.

All I owe the world is my art.

When anybody, no matter how old they are, loses a parent, I think it hurts the same as if you were only five years old, you know? I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.

The world is divided by two different tribes. The people who are assholes and the people who are not.

You can't sustain [anger]. You become bitter. Nothing's going to change. Anger leads to resentment, then to spiking your orange juice, then to martyrdom.

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

...there are some children who aren't really children at all, they're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart when you touch them..." ~ Thomas Builds-the-Fire (played by Evan Adams) in Alexie's "Smoke Signals