Thomas Builds-the-Fire's stories climbed into your clothes like sad, gave you itch that could not be scratched. If you repeated eve a sentence from one of those stories, your throat was never the same again. Those stories hung in your clothes and hair like smoke, and no amount of laundry soap or shampoo washed them out. Victor and Junior often tried to beat those stories out of Thomas, tied him down and taped his mouth shut. They pretended to be friendly and tried to sweet talk Thomas into temporary silences, made promises about beautiful Indian women and cases of Diet Pepsi. But none of that stopped Thomas, who talked and talked.

— Sherman Alexie

Walk the midway and hear the carnival barker. Come see the freak named after his deceased father. Come see the prince who wants to abdicate his throne. Come see the son whose name is carved on a gravestone.

— Sherman Alexie

Well, in the early days of humans, the community was our only protection against predators, and against the starvation. We survived because we trusted one another.

— Sherman Alexie

Well," she said, "how can I be sure there aren't invisible people in the world? Scientists didn't believe in the mountain gorilla for hundreds of years. And now look. So if scientists can be wrong, then all of us can be wrong. I mean, what if all those invisible people ARE scientists? Think about that one.

— Sherman Alexie

What if someone picks on me?" I asked Then I'll pick on them". What if someone picks my nose?" I asked.The'll pick your nose, too" Rowdy said.

— Sherman Alexie

What is it like to be a Spokane Indian without wild salmon? It is like being a Christian if Jesus had never rolled back the stone and risen from his tomb.

— Sherman Alexie

What kind of life can you have in a house without books?

— Sherman Alexie

When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing.

— Sherman Alexie

When it comes to death, we know that laughter and tears are pretty much the same thing. And so, laughing and crying, we said goodbye to my grandmother. And when we said goodbye to one grandmother, we said goodbye to all of them. Each funeral was a funeral for all of us. We lived and died together. All of us laughed when they lowered my grandmother into the ground. And all of us laughed when they covered her with dirt. And all of us laughed as we walked and drove and rode our way back to our lonely, lonely houses.

— Sherman Alexie

When my female friends are lefty horrid spouses and lovers, I commiserate. I send gifts-Powwow songs and poems- and wonder Why my gorgeous friends cannot find Someone who knows them as I do. Is the whole world dead and blind? I tell my friends, “I’d marry you Tomorrow.” I think I’m engaged To thirty-six women, my harem:Platonic, bookish, and enraged. I love them! But it would scare them-No, of course, they already know That I can be just one more boy, A toy warrior who explodes Into silence and warpaths with joy.

— Sherman Alexie