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.

I often wonder why I am the one who remember all the pain?

There are family mysteries I cannot solve. There are family mysteries I am unwilling to solve.

An Indian’s wealth   Is determined by what they lose And not by what they save.

Great pain is repetitive. Grief is repetitive.

You’re always making up stuff from the past, ” she said. “And the stuff you imagine is always better than the stuff that actually happened.

I didn’t yet know that romantic heroes—famous and not—are usually aimless nomads in disguise.

There's a lot of opportunities for scene-stealing if you're a dog.

I don't want to be the one to tell somebody, You will not make it, even though I know that the majority of those who come to me with their manuscripts are not really good enough.

Fair as the moon and joyful as the light; Tot wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim; Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright; Not as she is, but as she fills his dreams.

I have always wanted what I have now come to call the voice of personal narrative. That has always been the appealing voice in poetry. It started for me lyrically in Shakespeare's sonnets.

The only way to avoid making mistakes is not to do anything. And that will be the ultimate mistake.

Some one has said of a fine and honorable old age, that it was the childhood of immortality.

I don't know how you can go your whole life and not listen once to Bob Marley - what's the point?

I have put my whole soul into this work [The Pathetique Symphony] . . . You cannot imagine what joy I feel at the thought that my days are not yet over and that I may still accomplish much.

What's the worst thing that can happen to a quarterback? He loses his confidence.

I feel like finding the balance is the struggle with making music in general.