Do we make ourselves into what we become or is it built into our genes, into the fate spun for us by whatever shapes events?

It is important to understand that there are many different ways of seeing the world and expressing the wisdom of Native belief...No one voice speaks for all voices.

The best teachers have shown me that things have to be done bit by bit. Nothing that means anything happens quickly - we only think it does.

We need to walk to know sacred places, those around us and those within. We need to walk to remember the songs.

Kill every enemy twice, Wilky said. Better than gettin' shot by a soldier pretending to be dead.

Strong words outlast the paper they are written upon.

A story is a burden which must be carried with as much care as we carry a sleeping child

Guilt can make you doubt yourself at the very moment when you need to proceed with certainty.

Native people such as the Cherokees are just as human and complex and real as Americans are, and our nation needs to respect American Indian cultures and traditions.

As long as we can remember them, our families will always be with us.

Knowledge is easy to come by. Understanding what you know takes much longer.

Happiness is being famous for your financial ability to indulge in every kind of excess.

All that grieved me - that I was half one thing and half another and nothing wholly - was the sorrow of my childhood, but the strength and use of my life after I grew up.

When I was really young, I used to lie a lot. Now I get paid to do it.

The reason you write [songs] is because there's something you want to say that is important to you - enough to go through all the torture of writing.

The whole key of the profitable everyday living will be to discover out what's one's future to try and do, and after that do it.

You have family-owned businesses that have been around for 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives intact for even a few decades.

Nothing touches a work of art so little as criticism.

I want my work to reflect my level of gifts and talent

Every woman must admit, and every man with as much sense as a woman, that it's very hard to make a home for any man if he's always in it.