Make a difference about something other than yourselves.

Anything I have ever learned of any consequence, I have learned from Black people. I have never been bored by any Black person, ever.

My metaphor is that evil always has a top hat and a cape, and goodness is over there in the corner. For me it's just too easy, if you hate your country or your wife, so you kill them. You can't think through that, you can't feel through that, you can't do the work. And now we have guns. Solution? I don't think so.

Some Native American writers enjoy being called Native American writers.

I think some aspects of writing can be taught. Obviously, you can't teach vision or talent. But you can help with comfort.

Home is memory, home is your history, home is where you work. Some people want to abandon it and become truly local. But the questions are all there.

Nelson Mandela is, for me, the single statesman in the world. The single statesman, in that literal sense, who is not solving all his problems with guns. It's truly unbelievable.