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Quote by Sherman Alexie

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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven

This book is a collection of short stories by Sherman Alexie that explores the experiences of Native Americans living on and around the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington state. The stories blend realism with magical and surreal elements, often focusing on themes of identity, poverty, alcoholism, and cultural dislocation. The title story and others feature recurring characters, including the young narrator Victor, and use humor and tragedy to examine the complexities of contemporary Native American life, challenging stereotypes and historical narratives. more

Author

Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie is an American poet, writer, and actor, known for his works that reflect the life of Native Americans. He was born on October 7, 1966, and grew up in the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Rainier, Washington. more

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“Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.' I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl's life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her... I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me.”

“With her Florentino Ariza learned what he had already experienced many times without realizing it: that one can be in love with several people at the same time, feel the same sorrow with each, and not betray any of them. Alone in the midst of the crowd on the pier, he said to himself in a flash of anger: 'My heart has more rooms than a whorehouse.”

“To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility, yours and mine.”

“Alice thought, No. It wasn't the War and the disgruntled veterans; it wasn't the droves and droves of colored people flocking to paychecks and streets full of themselves. It was the music. The dirty, get-on-down music the women sang and the men played and both danced to, close and shamelesss or apart and wild...It made you do unwise disorderly things. Just hearing it was like violating the law.”

“maybe memories are like karaoke-where you realize up on the stage, with all those lyrics scrawling across the screen's bottom, and with everybody clapping at you, that you didn't know even half the lyrics to your all-time favourite song. Only afterwards, when someone else is up on stage humiliating themselves amid the clapping and laughing, do you realize that what you liiked most about your favourite song was precisely your ignorance of its full meaning- and you read more into it than maybe existed in the first place. I think it's better to not know the lyrics to your life.”