Sherman Alexie Quotes

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

Career, Whole, Left

Don't live up to your stereotypes.
Sherman Alexie

When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author.
Sherman Alexie

Thankful, Writing, Read

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

Life, Live, Her

I was a controversial figure on my reservation when I was a kid. I was mouthy and opinionated and arrogant. Nothing has changed.
Sherman Alexie

Nothing, Kid, Changed

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

Work, Live, Writing

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

Him, Dream, Needed

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

Time, Poetry, Speak

All I owe the world is my art.
Sherman Alexie

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

Time, Writing, Hands

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

Life, Good, School

I look more Indian when I'm serious.
Sherman Alexie

Serious, Indian

I'm a method writer. In order to write about the emotion, I have to experience it. I get physically tired and exhausted, devoting hours and hours and hours to it.
Sherman Alexie

Experience, Tired, Write

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.
Sherman Alexie

Night, Sure, Everybody

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

Children, Against, Purpose

A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
Sherman Alexie

Young, Idea, Literature

All art is exploitation.
Sherman Alexie

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

Real, Stuff, Attic

Certainly I'm angry at the way Indians have been treated and continue to be treated. But I don't think it's a helpless emotion.
Sherman Alexie

Angry, Emotion, Continue

I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.
Sherman Alexie

Respect, Another, Culture

I don't think there's a whole lot of class literature at all. I think most of that has become racially based, and people don't think of it as being class literature.
Sherman Alexie

Become, Whole, Literature

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

American, Culture, Tribal

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

Successful, Feeling, Another

I think a lot of Indians want Indian artists to be cultural cheerleaders rather than cultural investigators.
Sherman Alexie

Rather, Artists, Indian

I think that white women are more apt to read laterally. So I think there's some strong identification for women, and their political and social positions, and minorities. I think that the political power of, let's say, the average Indian man and a white woman are pretty equal.
Sherman Alexie

Women, Power, Strong

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Writer

Born: October 7, 1966

Links

Find on Amazon: Sherman Alexie

Cite this Page: Citation

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