I realized that I might be a lonely Indian boy, but I was not alone in the loneliness. There were millions of other Americans who had left their birthplaces in search of a dream. (217)

Everybody likes to have a place to think, to meditate, to eat a burrito.

If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.

He loved her, of course, but better than that, he chose her, day after day. Choice: that was the thing.

Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.

If you teach kids how to tell stories, they have a better chance at everything.

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

Don't live up to your stereotypes.

When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.

If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one's chances of survival increase with each book one reads.

Do you know why the Indian rain dances always worked? Because the Indians would keep dancing until it rained.

What can bombs know of the illuminated fields so golden with heaven in your heart’s sacred lands?

I almost gave my life long ago for a thingThat has gone to dust now, stinging my eyes—It is strange how often a heart must be brokenBefore the years can make it wise.

There are two excellent challengers against darkness in this universe: Powerful lights and great ideas!

If evil had a laugh, she thought it would sound like his.

...when I chose you, I didn't want the commonplace - I didn't want a 'partner' - I wanted a shrine...

It must not be forgotten that it is especially dangerous to enslave men in the minor details of life.

The man who smokes, thinks like a sage and acts like a Samaritan.

There is this difference between the growth of some human beings and that of others: in the one case it is a continuous dying, in the other a continuous resurrection.

At the shock of a joke, everything disappears but the present moment.

Take any path you like; follow any prophet you like; but have only that method which suits your own nature, so that you will be sure to progress.