"I'm showing people that indigenous people weren't stupid…At one time, we were all indigenous: the Irish, the English.…"

"And I realized: I've got to write the story about our people to anchor us to creation. And then no matter how much we…"

"Seeing my mother’s red shoes disappear, I almost leaped up screaming again, but then, the boy next to me said, “Calma…"

"I began to get up at two or three in the morning and work for twelve to fifteen hours a day. I’d get so emotionally d…"

"Then I was almost thirty years old when I wrote Macho!, and finally got published after 265 rejections. Immediately, …"

"All I knew was that I’d flunked the third grade twice because I couldn’t learn to read, had a terrible time all throu…"

"I was TORTURED by teachers! You hear me, TORTURED!” I yelled, jerking the whole podium off the floor. “Hell, I flunke…"

"“My grandmother—God bless her soul—a Yaqui Indian from northern Mexico, was the greatest teacher I’d ever had! And do…"

"A whole bunch of people towards the back of the room were now getting up to leave. But these teachers were not going …"

"The written word is holy…When we write our stories, it helps us bring understanding."