01c. 1966 ADI learned how to stop crying.I learned how to hide inside of myself.I learned how to be somebody else.I learned how to be cold and numb.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
02c. 1966 AD...And nostalgia is a cancer. Nostalgia will fill your heart up with tumors. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what you are. You're just an old fart dying of terminal nostalgia.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
03c. 1966 ADGay people were seen as magical, too. I mean, like in many cultures, men were viewed as warriors and women were viewed as caregivers. But gay people, being both male and female, were seen as both warriors and caregivers. Gay people could do anything. They were like Swiss Army knives!Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
05c. 1966 ADI didn’t yet know that romantic heroes—famous and not—are usually aimless nomads in disguise.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
08c. 1966 ADCorliss wondered what happens to a book that sits unread on a library shelf for thirty years. Can a book rightfully be called a book if it never gets read?...'How many books never get checked out," Corliss asked the librarian. 'Most of them,' she said.Corliss never once considered the fate of library books. She loved books. How could she not worry about the unread? She felt like a disorganized scholar, an abusive mother, and a cowardly soldier.'Are you serious?' Corliss asked. 'What are we talking about here? If you were guessing, what is the percentage of books in this library that never get checked out?' 'We're talking sixty percent of them. Seriously. Maybe seventy percent. And I'm being optimistic. It's probably more like eighty or ninety percent. This isn't a library, it's an orphanage.'The librarian talked in a reverential whisper. Corliss knew she'd misjudged this passionate woman. Maybe she dressed poorly, but she was probably great in bed, certainly believed in God and goodness, and kept an illicit collection of overdue library books on her shelves.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
09c. 1966 ADAll of these white kids and teachers, who were so suspicious of me when I first arrived, had learned to care about me. Maybe some of them even loved me. And I'd been so suspicious of them. And now I care about a lot of them. And loved a few of them.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
10c. 1966 ADI'd only seen Julius play a few times, but he had that gift, that grace, those fingers like a goddamn medicine man. One time, when the tribal school traveled to Spokane to play this white high school team, Julius scored sixty-seven points and the Indians won by forty.I didn't know they'd be riding horses," I heard the coach of the white team say when I was leaving....Hey," I asked Adrian. "Remember Silas Sirius?"Hell," Adrian said. "Do I remember? I was there when he grabbed that defensive rebound, took a step, and flew the length of the court, did a full spin in midair, and then dunked that fucking ball. And I don't mean it looked like he flew, or it was so beautiful it was almost like he flew. I mean, he flew, period."I laughed, slapped my legs, and knew that I believed Adrian's story more as it sounded less true.Shit," he continued. "And he didn't grow no wings. He just kicked his legs a little. Held that ball like a baby in his hand. And he was smiling. Really. Smiling when he flew. Smiling when he dunked it, smiling when he walked off the court and never came back. Hell, he was still smiling ten years after that.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
11c. 1966 ADLast night I missed two free throws which would have won the game against the best team in the state. The farm town high school I play for is nicknamed the "Indians," and I'm probably the only actual Indian ever to play for a team with such a mascot.This morning I pick up the sports page and read the headline: INDIANS LOSE AGAIN.Go ahead and tell me none of this is supposed to hurt me very much.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
12c. 1966 ADWhen my female friends are leftBy horrid spouses and lovers,I commiserate. I send gifts-Powwow songs and poems- and wonderWhy my gorgeous friends cannot findSomeone who knows them as I do.Is the whole world dead and blind?I tell my friends, “I’d marry youTomorrow.” I think I’m engagedTo thirty-six women, my harem:Platonic, bookish, and enraged.I love them! But it would scare them-No, of course, they already knowThat I can be just one more boy,A toy warrior who explodesInto silence and warpaths with joy.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
13c. 1966 ADGordie, the white boy genius, gave me this book by a Russian dude named Tolstoy, who wrote, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Well, I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn't know Indians, and he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reasons: the frikkin' booze.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
14c. 1966 ADLike the coffin was settling down for a long, long nap, for a forever nap.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
15c. 1966 ADSo I draw because I feel like it might be my only real chance to escape the reservation.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
16c. 1966 ADBut how can I get enough experience if they don't give me a chance to get experience?Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
17c. 1966 ADBut despite the fact that Reardan is a tiny town, people can still be strangers to each other.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
18c. 1966 ADLies have short shelf lives. Lies go bad. Lies rot and stink up the joint.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
19c. 1966 ADI hoped and prayed that they would someday forgive me for leaving them. I hoped and prayed that I would someday forgive myself for leaving them.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
21c. 1966 ADson," Mr. P said. "You're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
24c. 1966 ADI don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.Sherman Alexie / quote ↗
