I wrote my first novel because I wanted to read it.

Art invites us to know beauty and to solicit it, summon it, from even the most tragic of circumstances.

Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers.

Make up a story... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don't tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief's wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear's caul.

I am a moralist. I worry.

Being good to somebody is just like being mean to somebody. Risky. You don't get nothing for it.

When you first start writing-and I think it's true for a lot of beginning writers-you're scared to death that if you don't get that sentence right that minute it's never going to show up again. And it isn't. But it doesn't matter-another one will, and it'll probably be better. And I don't mind writing badly for a couple of days because I know I can fix it-and fix it again and again and again, and it will be better.