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But Something Magical Happened To Me When I Went To Reardan. Overnight I Became A Good Player. I Suppose It Had Something To Do With Confidence. I Mean, I'd Always Been The Lowest Indian On The Reservation Totem Pole - I Wasn't Expected To Be Good So I Wasn't. But In Reardan, My Coach And The Other Players Wanted Me To Be Good. They Needed Me To Be Good. They Expected Me To Be Good. And So I Became Good. I Wanted To Live Up To The Expectations. I Guess That's What It Comes Down To. The Power Of Expectations. And As They Expected More Of Me, I Expected More Of Myself, And It Just Grew And Grew.

-Sherman Alexie

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But Something Magical Happened

Sherman Alexie

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But Something Magical Happened To Me When I Went To Reardan. Overnight I Became A Good Player. I Suppose It Had Something To Do With Confidence. I Mean, I'd Always Been The Lowest Indian On The Reservation Totem Pole - I Wasn't Expected To Be Good So I Wasn't. But In Reardan, My Coach And The Other Players Wanted Me To Be Good. They Needed Me To Be Good. They Expected Me To Be Good. And So I Became Good. I Wanted To Live Up To The Expectations. I Guess That's What It Comes Down To. The Power Of Expectations. And As They Expected More Of Me, I Expected More Of Myself, And It Just Grew And Grew.

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I Was Studying The Sky Like I Was An Astronomer, Except It Was Daytime And I Didn't Have A Telescope, So I Was Just An Idiot.

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You Know, People Speak In Poetry All The Time. They Just Don't Realize It.

My Only Purpose Is To Teach Children To Rebel Against Authority Figures.

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...there Are Some Children Who Aren't Really Children At All, They're Just Pillars Of Flame That Burn Everything They Touch. And There Are Some Children Who Are Just Pillars Of Ash, That Fall Apart When You Touch Them..." ~ Thomas Builds-the-fire (played By Evan Adams) In Alexie's "smoke Signals

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My Books For Adults Had Been Previously Challenged And Banned So I'd Had Experience With It. I Always Find It Sad And Amusing: Sad To Think That Such Archaic And Potentially Dangerous Censorious Beliefs Still Exist, And Amused Because These Censors Only Make A Book More Powerful And Seductive When Trying To Ban It.

I Don’t Want Long Hair, I Don’t Want Short Hair, I Don’t Want Hair At All, And I Don’t Want To Be A Girl Or A Boy. I Want To Be A Yellow And Orange Leaf Some Little Kid Picks Up And Pastes In His Scrapbook.

Like Officer Dave.he's Never Said Much About His Life, But I Can Tell He's Scarred. And He Knows I'm Scarred Too. The Wounded Always Recognize The Wounded. We Can Smell Each Other.

I Guess A Witness Is All I Am. I Think As A Writer, You're Pretty Removed. Writing Is A Very Selfish, Individualistic Pursuit. So In That Sense I'm A Witness Because I'm Not Participating.

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Sometimes It's Called Passing Out And Sometimes It's Just Pretending To Be Asleep

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I Had The Feeling I Was Going To Be Successful, And I Didn't Want To Be Another Disappointing Indian.

These Are Things You Should Learn. Your Past Is A Skeleton Walking One Step Behind You; Your Future Is A Skeleton Walking One Step In Front Of You. Maybe You Don’t Wear A Watch, But Your Skeletons Do, And They Always Know What Time It Is. Now, These Skeletons Are Made Of Memories, Dreams, And Voices. And They Can Trap You In The In-between, Between Touching And Becoming. But They’re Not Necessarily Evil, Unless You Let Them Be.

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.

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If You Care About Something Enough, It’s Going To Make You Cry. But You Have To Use It. Use Your Tears. Use Your Pain. Use Your Fear. Get Mad. Arnold, Get Mad.

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In A Real-world Way, My Gifts Are Very Limited In Terms Of What I Can Do.

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I Write In Blood Because I Remember What It Felt Like To Bleed.

The World, Even The Smallest Parts Of It, Is Filled With Things You Don't Know.

A Lot Of People Have No Idea That Right Now Y.a. (young Adult). Is The Garden Of Eden Of Literature.

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Political Opinions

Nuclear Disarmament

Life Is A Constant Struggle Between Being An Individual And Being A Member Of The Community.

I Recognize Now That The Conditions That Indians Are Living In Are The Conditions That Poor People Everywhere Are Living In.

Listen You Have To Read A Book Three Times Before You Know It.

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But Something Magical Happened To Me When I Went To Reardan. Overnight I Became A Good Player. I Suppose It Had Something To Do With Confidence. I Mean, I'd Always Been The Lowest Indian On The Reservation Totem Pole - I Wasn't Expected To Be Good So I Wasn't. But In Reardan, My Coach And The Other Players Wanted Me To Be Good. They Needed Me To Be Good. They Expected Me To Be Good. And So I Became Good. I Wanted To Live Up To The Expectations. I Guess That's What It Comes Down To. The Power Of Expectations. And As They Expected More Of Me, I Expected More Of Myself, And It Just Grew And Grew.

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Native American

What If Someone Picks On Me?" I Asked Then I'll Pick On Them". What If Someone Picks My Nose?" I Asked. The I'll Pick Your Nose, Too" Rowdy Said.

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Don't Live Up To Your Stereotypes.

How Self-centered, How Arrogant... Imagine The Awesome Privilege Of Living In A Society Where You Get To Choose What You Eat At Each And Every Meal. When I Was A Kid, I Was A Vegetarian And A Vegan For Long Stretches... I Was A Commodity Cheese-atarian.

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My Father Was A Basketball Player, So I Loved Basketball Because He Did. It Was A Direct Transference. But, More Than That, Basketball, In The United States At Least, Plays The Same Function That Soccer Does Everyone Else In The World. It's The Sport Of Poverty. It's The Sport Born Of Poverty. It's The Cheapest Sport.

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Native American

I Think A Lot Of Indians Want Indian Artists To Be Cultural Cheerleaders Rather Than Cultural Investigators.

Since Jesus Was Human Then He Most Assuredly Farted And Burped. And If God Did Create Us In God's Image Then God Must Fart And Burp As Well.

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Native American

He Wanted The Songs, The Stories, To Save Everybody.

Well, As A Native, As A Colonized People You Do Live In The In Between. The Thing Is I'm Native. But Necessarily Because I'm A Member Of The Country, I'm Also A White American.

Okay, So Maybe I'm Romantic... But Somebody Is Supposed To Be Romantic. Some Warrior Is Supposed To Go To War Against The Imperial Forces Of Cynicism And Irony. I Am A Sentimental Soldier.

I'll Quit Eating Meat When You Get A Cow Out Here To Beat Me At A Poetry Slam. Only So Many Words Rhyme With 'mooo.' I Mean, Yes, We're Supposed To Be Better Stewards; Yes, We're Supposed To Take Care Of The Earth; Yes, We're Supposed To Honor The Sacrifices Made By The Animals; Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes, But Dammit, We're In Charge, And You Know Why? It's Because Of These [holding Out Thumbs]...maybe You Think That Carrots Are Less Important Than Cows. I Think They're Equal, Especially In A Sauce.

Gordie, 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.

My Name Is Sherman J. Alexie Jr., And I Am An Insomniac.

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The People Who Loved Me When I Was Seven Years Old Love My Books, And The People Who Didn't Like Me When I Was Seven Years Old Don't Like My Books.

That's The Whole Point Of Life, You Know? To Meet New People.

Meeting New People

She Was In Pain And I Loved Her, Sort Of Loved Her, I Guess, So I Kind Of Had To Love Her Pain, Too.

I'm A Poet Who Can Whine In Meter

Poetry = Anger X Imagination

I End Up Feeling Like A Spy In The House Of Ethnicity, You Know? Because People Will Talk Around Me As They Would Talk Around The People In Their Cultural Group. So I Get To Hear All The Secrets And Jokes And You Know, I'm A Part Of Every Community Because Of The Way I Look.

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Native American

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Black And White

Those Montana Indians Were So Tough That White People Were Scared Of Them. Can You Imagine A Place Where White People Are Scared Of Indians And Not The Other Way Around? That's Montana.

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.'

When It Comes To Death, We Know That Laughter And Tears Are Pretty Much The Same Thing.

In The Middle Of A Crazy And Drunk Life, You Have To Hang Onto The Good And Sober Moments Tightly.

Is Revenge A Circle Inside Of A Circle Inside Of A Circle?

I Draw Because Words Are Too Unpredictable. I Draw Because Words Are Too Limited. If You Speak And Write In English, Or Spanish, Or Chinese, Or Any Other Language, Then Only A Certain Percentage Of Human Beings Will Get Your Meaning. But When You Draw A Picture Everybody Can Understand It. If I Draw A Cartoon Of A Flower, Then Every Man, Woman, And Child In The World Can Look At It And Say, "that's A Flower.

Bush Has Not Read Enough Books To Have A Developed Moral Sense. The Fewer Books You Read, The Easier It Is To Become Fundamental. In Some Ways My Antiwar Stand Here Is Also A Stand On Anti-literacy. Someone Should Get G.w. Into A Reading Program, Get Him To Join A Book Club. Have Him Read Hamlet, King Lear.

Pain Is Never Added To Pain. It Multiplies.

I Realized That I Might Be A Lonely Indian Boy, But I Was Not Alone In The Loneliness. There Were Millions Of Other Americans Who Had Left Their Birthplaces In Search Of A Dream. (217)

I Refuse To Censor Myself And Kids Will Find Their Own Way To My Books And To All Of The Books That Matter To Them. As I Write More Honestly More Kids Will Make Their Way Toward Me. And In Subverting Their Repressive Parents Kids Will Learn The Value Of Subverting The Repressive Nature Of All Authority Figures.

In The Middle Of The Night, When You're Ambiguously Ethnic, Like Me, When You're Brown, Beige, Mauve, Siena, One Of Those Lighter Browns In The Crayola Box. You Have To Be Careful Of The Cops And Robbers, Because Nobody's Quite Sure What You Are, But Everybody Has Assumptions.

Only In Rock Music And The Literary World You See So Many Ugly White Guys With Beautiful Women. That Says A Lot About The Women, Their Character. They're Attracted To More Than Surface.

The Dream He Needed Most Was The Dream That Frightened Him More.

But We Danced, Under Wigs And Between Unfinished Walls, Through Broken Promises And Around Empty Cupboards.

Everybody Likes To Have A Place To Think, To Meditate, To Eat A Burrito.

What Inspires A Poem For Me Is Usually A Moment.

Yes, I Am Irish And Indian, Which Would Be The Coolest Blend In The World If My Parents Were Around To Teach Me How To Be Irish And Indian. But They're Not Here And Haven't Been For Years, So I'm Not Really Irish Or Indian. I Am A Blank Sky, A Human Solar Eclipse.

I Remember When People Used To Think I Was Smart. I Remember When People Used To Think My Brain Was Useful. Damaged By Water, Sure. And Ready To Seizure At Any Moment. But Still Useful, And Maybe Even A Little Bit Beautiful And Sacred And Magical.

When You Resort To Violence To Prove A Point, You’ve Just Experienced A Profound Failure Of Imagination.

At Least Half The Country Thinks The Mascot Issue Is Insignificant. But I Think It's Indicative Of The Ways In Which Indians Have No Cultural Power. We're Still Placed In The Past. So We're Either In The Past Or We're Only Viewed Through Casinos.

If I Were A Doctor Nobody Would Be Inviting Me To Talk To Reservations. I'd Be A Different Person. Writers Can Influence More People.

Facebook And Twitter And These Other Social Sites Bring Every, I Mean, 140 Characters. I Mean, I'm On Twitter And I Have Fun. But I Don't Think Anybody Learns Anything About Me As A Person.

I Grew Up In A Storytelling Culture, A Tribal Culture, But Also In An American Storytelling Culture.

We All Know The Indians Were Colonized By The Europeans, But Every Colonized Indian Has Been Colonized By The Indian Reaction To Colonization.

She Told Me That Every Other Step Was Just For Me.' But That's Only Half Of The Dance,' I Said. Yeah,' My Father Said. 'she Was Keeping The Rest For Herself. Nobody Can Give Everything Away. It Ain't Healthy.

The Problem For Me With Liberals Is That We've Abdicated Our Moral Responsibility To The Universe.

The Form I Most Enjoy Writing Is The Sonnet Or Sonnet-like Forms, Where You Have A - You Know, Three Stanzas Or Two Stanzas That Lead Into A Concluding Couplet.

I Don't Think The Revisionist Historians Are Accurate. I Think Their Agendas Are Clouded By Selfishness And Anger And Rage.

Every Indian Kid Has Access To Myspace And Facebook. But That Doesn't Mean They Have Access To Books And Great Teachers. This Idea About Bringing Digital Tech Into Schools Is Great, But Once Again I'll Say That This Is Not How People Actually Learn.

Do You Know Why The Indian Rain Dances Always Worked? Because The Indians Would Keep Dancing Until It Rained.

A Really Good Stand-up Comic Is A Poet; It's About The Use Of Language. It Can Be Really Poetic. And I Like Politically Conscious Comedy.

One Play Can Change Your Momentum Forever.

The Problem Is That Too Many Adults Think Their Kids' Lives Are Simple, Or They Try To Make Their Lives Simple, When Their Emotional Lives Are Just As Complicated As Ours. They Might Have A Few Less Tools To Deal With It Because They're Young, But The Emotions Are All The Same, And The Subject Matter Is All The Same.

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.

If It's Fiction, Then It Better Be True.

I Grabbed My Book And Opened It Up. I Wanted To Smell It. Heck, I Wanted To Kiss It. Yes, Kiss It. That's Right, I Am A Book Kisser. Maybe That's Kind Of Perverted Or Maybe It's Just Romantic And Highly Intelligent.

Well, I Think The Worst Part About Tribalism Is Its Tendency To Fundamentalize, And If I Can Fight Fundamentalism In Any Of Its Forms I'm Happy.

You Can't Sustain [anger]. You Become Bitter. Nothing's Going To Change. Anger Leads To Resentment, Then To Spiking Your Orange Juice, Then To Martyrdom.

Corliss Had Never Once Considered The Fate Of Library Books. She'd Never Wondered How Many Books Go Unread. She Loved Books. How Could She Not Worry About The Unread? She Felt Like A Disorganized Scholar, An Inconsiderate Lover, An Abusive Mother, And A Cowardly Soldier.

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