Writing is a lonely business.
I thought I'd been condescended to as an Indian - that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing young adult literature.
Nostalgia is always doomed and dooming.
I think a lot of Indians want Indian artists to be cultural cheerleaders rather than cultural investigators.
Don't live up to your stereotypes.
Certainly I'm angry at the way Indians have been treated and continue to be treated. But I don't think it's a helpless emotion.
But the real interesting stuff is in the cellar and the attic.
I look more Indian when I'm serious.
When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.
I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.
In a real-world way, my gifts are very limited in terms of what I can do.
You'd never know it from reading the rest of the Native writers, but Indians actually grew up with American pop culture.
I felt so conflicted about having fled the rez as a kid that I created a whole literary career that left me there.
Spiritual matters should be private.
There isn't a lot of poverty literature in the young-adult world. And I don't know why that is, but I think certainly I felt a gap.
You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don't realize it.
I don't have to participate in another culture's ceremonies in order to respect that culture.
If I wasn't writing poems I'd be washing my hands all the time.
All art is exploitation.
My only purpose is to teach children to rebel against authority figures.
I had the feeling I was going to be successful, and I didn't want to be another disappointing Indian.
My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.
What inspires a poem for me is usually a moment.
