The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian Quotes
"Poverty = empty refrigerator + empty stomach."
"The world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats."
"I am a zero on the rez. And if you subtract zero from zero, you still have zero."
"I draw because I want to talk to the world. And I want the world to pay attention to me."
"It's not like anybody's going to notice if you go away, so you might as well gut it out."
"Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community."
"I used to think the world was broken down by tribes. By Black and White. By Indian and White. But I know that isn't true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."
"Maybe I could just drop out of school completely. I could go live in the woods like a hermit."
"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know."
"If you’re good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can’t be wrong."
"I want to build something beautiful. Because I want to be remembered."
"Maybe I don’t know anything about romance, but I know a little bit about beauty."
"Have you ever watched a beautiful woman play volleyball?"
"I just wanted to watch the sweaty Penelope sweat her perfect sweat on that perfectly sweaty day."
"Even though I didn’t think I’d ever hear back, I wanted to know what to do with my feelings."
"Well, in the early days of humans, the community was our only protection against predators, and against starvation. We survived because we trusted one another."
"You think you’re good enough to play varsity?"
"I’ve learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children."
"My grandmother’s greatest gift was tolerance."
"All I want to know is who’s going to pick up all the dirty socks?"
"I mean, the thing is, plenty of Indians have died because they were drunk. And plenty of drunken Indians have killed other drunken Indians."
"The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not."
"I walked out of the classroom and felt like dancing and singing."
"It gave me hope. It gave me a little bit of joy."
"It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together. You can do it."
"In the middle of a crazy and drunk life, you have to hang on to the good and sober moments tightly."
"But somehow or another, Indians have forgotten that reservations were meant to be death camps."
"The reservation is beautiful. I mean it. Take a look."
"Some of the pines are ninety feet tall and more than three hundred years old."
"It's not like we were lumberjacks or anything. It's not like we used anything except our hands, feet, and dumb luck."
"Mostly Rowdy and I just sat still and dreamed about air-conditioning."
"When I get rich and famous, I’m going to have a house that has an air conditioner in every room."
"No matter how old I get, I think I’m always going to be scared of falling."
"It was the most glorious noise I’d ever heard. And I realized that, sure, Indians were drunk and sad and displaced and crazy and mean but, dang, we knew how to laugh."
"We didn’t want to leave. I thought maybe we’d stay up there and die."
"It’s probably not the best thing in the world to do, punching a hydro in the skull."