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Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko Biography

Writer

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“I realize many wonderful things about language - "realize" in the sense of feeling or understanding intuitively: I realize such things most often when I am greatly concerned with another person's feelings. I think such realization is one gift which human beings may give each other. I'm not much good at analysis or scholarly efforts with language, probably because I don't value them as much as I value understanding, which is informed by that which is deeply felt before it is examined.”

LoveLanguageUnderstandingGriefCompassionWordsIntuitionFeeling
Book:The Delicacy and Strength of Lace
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“Nearly all human cultures plant gardens, and the garden itself has ancient religious connections. For a long time, I've been interested in pre-Christian European beliefs, and the pagan devotions to sacred groves of trees and sacred springs. My German translator gave me a fascinating book on the archaeology of Old Europe, and in it I discovered ancient artifacts that showed that the Old European cultures once revered snakes, just as we Pueblo Indian people still do. So I decided to take all these elements - orchids, gladiolus, ancient gardens, Victorian gardens, Native American gardens, Old European figures of Snake-bird Goddesses - and write a novel about two young sisters at the turn of the century.”

InspirationOrchidsGardensPre Christian EuropeAncient GardensGladiolusNative American SymbolismSnake Bird Goddess
Book:Gardens in the Dunes
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“The way I heard it was in the old days long time ago they had this Scalp Society for warriors who killed or touched dead enemies. They had things they must do otherwise K'oo'ko wouldn't haunt their dreams with her great fangs and everything would be endangered. Maybe the rain wouldn't come or the deer would go away. That's why they had things they must do The flute and dancing blue cornmeal and hair-washing. All these things they had to do.”

TraditionNative AmericansCeremonies
Book:Ceremony
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“Linguistic diversity is integral to the cultural diversity that ensures some humans will survive in the event of one of the periodic global catastrophes. Local indigenous languages hold the keys to to survival because they contain the nouns, the names of the plants, insects, birds and mammals important locally to human survival.”

KnowledgeSurvivalLinguisticsCultural DiversityLanguagesLinguistic DiversityHuman SurvivalIndigenous Languages
Book:The Turquoise Ledge: A Memoir
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“Laura described the remnants of snake devotion still found in rural villages of the Black and Adriatic Seas. There, people believed black or green snakes bore guardian spirits who protected their cattle and their homes. In her travels Laura saw ornamental snakes carved to decorate the roofs and windows for protection. Great good fortune came to anyone who met a big white snake wearing a crown,; the crowned snake was the sister of the waterbird goddess, owner and guardian of life water and life milk.”

SnakesAncient BeliefsEuropean BeliefsOrnamental CarvingsSnake DevotionWaterbird GoddessWhite Snakes
Book:Gardens in the Dunes
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“relationships. That's all there really is. There's your relationship with the dust that just blew in your face, or with the person who just kicked you end over end. ... You have to come to terms, to some kind of equilibrium, with those people around you, those people who care for you, your environment.”

PeopleKindPersonsEndsCareFacesTermEnvironmentDustYour FaceOur RelationshipWho CaresOur EnvironmentEquilibriumCare For You
Book:Conversations with Leslie Marmon Silko
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“When someone dies, you don't get over it by forgetting; you get over it by remembering, and you are aware that no person is ever truly lost or gone once they have been in our life and loved us, as we have loved them.”

PersonsHas BeensRememberDiesLostForgetGoneOur LivesOver ItGet OverForget YouWhen Someone Dies
Book:The Delicacy and Strength of Lace: Letters Between Leslie Marmon Silko & James Wright
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“Distances and days existed in themselves then; they all had a story. They were not barriers. If a person wanted to get to the moon, there is a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions, on whether you knew the story of how others before you had gone. He had believed in the stories for a long time, until the teachers at Indian school taught him not to believe in that kind of "nonsense". But they had been wrong.”

IfsWayBelieveKindPersonsLongStoriesWantedSchoolGoneTeacherTaughtMoonLong TimeDistanceIndianNonsenseBarriers
Author:Leslie Marmon Silko
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“For a long time he had been white smoke. He did not realize that until he left the hospital, because white smoke had no consciousness of itself. It faded into the white world of their bed sheets and walls; it was sucked away by the words of doctors who tried to talk to the invisible scattered smoke... They saw his outline but they did not realize it was hollow inside.”

WorldLongLeftRealizingWhiteConsciousnessSawsWallBedLong TimeDoctorsInvisibleSmokeHospitalsSheetsHollowDoctor WhoOutlinesFadedBed Sheets
Book:Ceremony
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“Then they grow away from the earth then they grow away from the sun then they grow away from the plants and the animals. They see no life. When they look they see only objects. The world is a dead thing for them the trees and the rivers are not alive. the mountains and stones are not alive. The deer and bear are objects. They see no life. They fear. They fear the world. They destroy what they fear. They fear themselves.”

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Author:Leslie Marmon Silko
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