From a craft standpoint, telling a story in the first-person present tense over the course of 500 pages is a daunting challenge.

The history needs to serve the story, not the story the history. But at the same time you can't stray too far.

People will say that Canada, unlike America, was not birthed from violence. But I want to say, "What are you talking about?" It's just not true.

There's the concept that dreams are as important - if not more important - than reality. The attention that one pays to those things in the shadows is very much a part of the Indian experience.

America seems to celebrate its more violent past, but Canada doesn't like to recognize those things. The willingness to accept the existence of violence separates our two countries.

Sometimes, it's not getting what we want that offers us the most important Lessons

I never want to play down to the reader. I think readers are willing to go along if they're intrigued.

The beliefs of Native people are no less powerful or important just because they focus on a different "form of magic."

We aren't the masters of the earth. We're the servants.

I'm fascinated by the magic realism used by many writers. I think it goes hand-in-hand with the Indian experience. It's a very different way of viewing the world.

I believe truly that Canada is a living history and we're going through some of the most important time in this country's short 150 years.

It's best to locate the mind first before launching the 'missiles of contention'.

When I try to be patient on my own, my patience is forced and short-lived. It is obvious to everyone that I am desperately trying to be patient.

A frame is the foundation from which everything evolves.

Whoever said that love is blind was dead wrong. Love is the only thing on this earth that lets us see each other with the remotest accuracy.

That is why my pictures don't look like modern art. It's some sort of timidity on my part I'm sure.

Over my head his arm he flung, Against the world.

You can run a sprint or your can run a marathon, but you can't sprint a marathon.

Every now and then, I feel terribly uncomfortable with what I'm working on, and then I think maybe I am an artist. I'm not very articulate about it, but I do know that you have to follow your gut.

There are two lost continents.... We are one: the lovers.

Reaching into one's own pocket to assist his fellow man is noble and worthy of praise. Reaching into another person's pocket to assist one's fellow man is despicable and worthy of condemnation.