Sherman Alexie Quotes

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Sherman Alexie

Profession : Writer

Birth : October 7, 1966

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.

Sherman Alexie

In high school I dated a white woman. She would come to visit me on the rez. And her dad, who was very racist, didn't like that at all. And he told her one time, 'You shouldn't go on the rez if you're white because Indians have a lot of anger in their heart.'

Sherman Alexie

Don't live up to your stereotypes.

Sherman Alexie

Nostalgia is always doomed and dooming.

Sherman Alexie

Sixty percent of all Indians live in urban areas, but nobody's writing about them. They're really an underrepresented population, and the ironic thing is very, very few of those we call Native American writers actually grew up on reservations, and yet most of their work is about reservations.

Sherman Alexie

You want the good life? You live where white people live, you go to school where white people go to school, and you shop where white people shop.

Sherman Alexie

The dream he needed most was the dream that frightened him more.

Sherman Alexie

We all know the Indians were colonized by the Europeans, but every colonized Indian has been colonized by the Indian reaction to colonization.

Sherman Alexie

I had the feeling I was going to be successful, and I didn't want to be another disappointing Indian.

Sherman Alexie

White Americans have a short memory.

Sherman Alexie

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

Sherman Alexie

I don't know what any individual should do about crossing her own borders. I only know that I live a happier, more adventurous life, by crossing borders.

Sherman Alexie

My only purpose is to teach children to rebel against authority figures.

Sherman Alexie

All art is exploitation.

Sherman Alexie

I grew up in a storytelling culture, a tribal culture, but also in an American storytelling culture.

Sherman Alexie

You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.

Sherman Alexie

If I wasn't writing poems I'd be washing my hands all the time.

Sherman Alexie

There isn't a lot of poverty literature in the young-adult world. And I don't know why that is, but I think certainly I felt a gap.

Sherman Alexie

But the real interesting stuff is in the cellar and the attic.

Sherman Alexie

My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.

Sherman Alexie