The collection / 128 fragments

The living archive

Passages, proverbs, and questions carried across the ages.

SearchTypeTopicEraCulture / collection labelCountry attributionTraditionOrder

Author

Leave empty for every voice. Browse all authors ↗

Reset

Culture labels and country attributions follow the source collections; earliest origins may be unknown.

128 results · Page 2 of 6Play this collection ▷

01Undated

The white people always want to fight someone and they always get the dark-skinned people to do the fighting.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

02Undated

You meet me after school right here", I said."Why?" he asked.I couldn't believe he was so stupid."Because we're going to finish this fight.""You're crazy," Roger said.He got to his feet and walked away. His gang stared at me like I was a serail killer, and they followed their leader.I was absolutely confused.I had followed the rules of fighting. i had behaved exactly the way I was supposed to behave. But these white boys had ignored the rules. In fact, they followed a whole other set of mysterious rules where people apparently DID NOT GET INTO FISTFIGHTS.(65)

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

03Undated

Shit," he said. "I don't know why you're feeling sorry for yourself because you ain't had to fight a war. You're lucky. Shit, all you had was that damn Desert Storm. Should have called it Dessert Storm because it just made the fat cats get fatter. It was all sugar and whipped cream with a cherry on top. And besides that, you didn't even have to fight in it. All you lost during that was was sleep because you stayed up all night watching CNN.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

04Undated

And I couldn't make fun of her for that dream. It was my dream, too. And Indian boys weren't supposed to dream like that. And white girls from small towns weren't supposed to dream big, either.We were supposed to be happy with our limitations. But there was no way Penelope and I were going to sit still. Nope, we both wanted to fly:

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

05Undated

Can you hear the dreams crackling like a campfire? Can you hear the dreams sweeping through the pine trees and tipis? Can you hear the dreams laughing in the sawdust? Can you hear the dreams shaking just a little bit as the day grows long? Can you hear the dreams putting on a good jacket that smells of fry bread and sweet smoke? Can you hear the dreams stay up late and talk so many stories?

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

06Undated

I was emotionally erect.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

07Undated

But, in the Trump aftermath, I've measured the costsAnd benefits of loving those who don't loveStrangers. After all, I'm often the odd one—The strangest stranger—in any field or room."He was weird" will be carved into my tomb.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

08Undated

He looked into the crowd for approval, saw his mother and father. He waved and they waved back. Smiles and Indian teeth. They were both drunk. Everything familiar and welcome. Everything beautiful.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

09Undated

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

10Undated

I always think it's funny when Indians celebrate Thanksgiving. I mean, sure, the Indians and Pilgrims were best friends during the first Thanksgiving, but a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians.So I'm never quite sure why we eat turkey like everybody else.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

11Undated

Summer coming like a car from down the highway.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

12Undated

Seems like the cold would never go away and winter would be like the bottom of my feet but then it is gone in one night and in its place comes the sun so large and laughable.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

13Undated

What is it like to be a Spokane Indian without wild salmon? It is like being a Christian if Jesus had never rolled back the stone and risen from his tomb.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

14Undated

There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away. (107)

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

15Undated

Pain is never added to pain. It multiplies.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

16Undated

I often wonder why I am the one who remember all the pain?

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

17Undated

How much do we remember of what hurts us most? I've been thinking about pain, how each of us constructs our past to justify what we feel now. How each successive pain distorts the preceding.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

18Undated

They wanted to help me with my pain.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

19Undated

I was crying because I had broken my best friend's heart.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

20Undated

I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

21Undated

There are family mysteries I cannot solve. There are family mysteries I am unwilling to solve.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

22Undated

He was going to punish me now. He couldn't beat me up with his old man fists, but he could hurt me with his old man words.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

23Undated

It was so quiet, a reservation kind of quiet, where you can hear somebody drinking whiskey on the rocks three miles away.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗

24Undated

My grandmother's last act on earth was a call for forgiveness, love, and tolerance.

Sherman Alexie / quote

↗