Literary Birthday – 7 October – Sherman Alexie

Happy Birthday, Sherman Alexie, born 7 October 1966,

12 Quotes

1. If one reads enough books one has a fighting chance. Or better, one’s chances of survival increase with each book one reads.
2. Don’t live up to your stereotypes.
3. Read. Read 1000 pages for every one page that you write.
4. I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don’t write to protect them. It’s far too late for that. I write to give them weapons–in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
5. What kind of life can you have in a house without books?
6. I suddenly understood that if every moment of a book should be taken seriously, then every moment of a life should be taken seriously as well.
7. You know, people speak in poetry all the time. They just don’t realise it.
8. Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.
9. The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.
10. I grabbed my book and opened it up. I wanted to smell it. Heck, I wanted to kiss it. Yes, kiss it. That’s right, I am a book kisser. Maybe that’s kind of perverted or maybe it’s just romantic and highly intelligent.
11. I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.
12. Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.

Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, writer, and filmmaker. He is best known for writing The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Fistfight in Heaven, and Smoke Signals.

Source for Image

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red-ink-alexie-matsunaga-2016-3507_(27727650011)_(cropped).jpg

ASU Department of English, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

by Amanda Patterson

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