On any state elections map, the reservations are blue places. Native people are most often progressives, Democrats, and by no means gun-toting vigilantes. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
My grandfather was a persuasive man who made friends with people at every level of influence. In order to fight against our tribe’s termination, he went to newspapers and politicians and urged them to advocate for our tribe in Washington. He also supported his family through the Depression as a truck farmer. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
My mother is Turtle Mountain Chippewa, and she lived on her home reservation. My father taught there. He had just been discharged from the Air Force. He went to school on the GI Bill and got his teaching credentials. He is adventurous – he worked his way through Alaska at age seventeen and paid for his living expenses by winning at the poker table. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
My father is my biggest literary influence. Recently, I’ve been looking through his letters. He was in the National Guard when I was a child, and whenever he left, he would write to me. He wrote letters to me all through college, and we still correspond. His letters, and my mother’s, are one of my life’s treasures. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
You know, some people fall right through the hole in their lives. It’s invisible, but they come to it after time, never knowing where. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
Columbus only discovered that he was in some new place. He didn’t discover America. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
Here I am, where I ought to be. A writer must have a place where he or she feels this, a place to love and be irritated with. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
I rarely step on sidewalk cracks. I don’t wear a watch. I touch my favorite tree before going on long trips. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
Revenge is a sorrow for the person who has to take it on. And the person who is rash enough to think it’s going to help a situation is always wrong. Louise Erdrich Read Quote
