I thought I'd been condescended to as an Indian - that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing young adult literature.

I wanted to do a weird book and reestablish my independent, small-press roots.

I've come to the point in my life where I encourage young Native Americans to become much more selfish about their personal needs and wants.

In a real-world way, my gifts are very limited in terms of what I can do.

My career means, if you're a non-Indian writing about Indians, at least there's one Indian in your rearview mirror.

My father is an amazing man.

My father was always depressed. When he was home and sober, he was mostly in his room.

My name is Sherman J. Alexie Jr., and I am an insomniac.

My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.

Nostalgia is always doomed and dooming.

Spiritual matters should be private.

The people who loved me when I was seven years old love my books, and the people who didn't like me when I was seven years old don't like my books.

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.

Well, I think the worst part about tribalism is its tendency to fundamentalize, and if I can fight fundamentalism in any of its forms I'm happy.

What inspires a poem for me is usually a moment.

When you construct a mix tape, the first song you come out with has to be a barnburner.

White Americans have a short memory.

Writing is a lonely business.

You'd never know it from reading the rest of the Native writers, but Indians actually grew up with American pop culture.

I don't think there's a whole lot of class literature at all. I think most of that has become racially based, and people don't think of it as being class literature.