25 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Quotes

If you enjoy books based on the writer’s life, you will love The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian quotes below.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a National Book Award Winner written by Sherman Alexie, Illustrated by Ellen Forney, and published in 2007 by Little, Brown, and Company.

The book has led to some controversy due to some issues discussed in it, and some schools have blocked the book from school libraries.

The book’s plot follows Arnold Spirit Jr., or “Junior” for short, who lives with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Washington.

Junior dreams of being a cartoonist and decides to attend the nearly all-white public school off the reservation.

The book details Junior’s experiences and bravery as he has been picked on by people throughout his life for his small stature, lisp, and poor eyesight.

Take a look at these The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian quotes.

Best of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Quotes

Here are some popular quotes from the book.

1. “That’s right, I am a book kisser.” — Sherman Alexie

2. “Use your tears. Use your pain.” — Sherman Alexie

3. “I draw because words are too unpredictable.” — Sherman Alexie

4. “We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.” — Sherman Alexie

5. “You have to read a book three times before you know it.” — Sherman Alexie

6. “If you care about something enough, it’s going to make you cry.” — Sherman Alexie

7. “We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away.” — Sherman Alexie

8. “I’ve learned that the worst thing a parent can do is ignore their children.” — Sherman Alexie

9. “If you let people into your life a little bit, they can be pretty damn amazing.” — Sherman Alexie

10. “The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don’t know.” — Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Quotes About Life

Learn about the author’s experiences and life lessons from the following quotes.

11. “I think all of us are always five years old in the presence and absence of our parents.” — Sherman Alexie

12. “The world is only broken into two tribes: the people who are assholes and the people who are not.” — Sherman Alexie

13. “I think the world is a series of broken dams and floods, and my cartoons are tiny little lifeboats.” — Sherman Alexie

14. “Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” — Sherman Alexie

15. “Poverty doesn’t give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” — Sherman Alexie

16. “When anybody, no matter how old they are, loses a parent, I think it hurts the same as if you were only five years old, you know?” — Sherman Alexie

17. “They dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” — Sherman Alexie

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Quotes to Inspire You

Here are a few additional quotes from the book about drawing, books, life, and more.

18. “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” — Sherman Alexie

19. “If you’re good at it, and you love it, and it helps you navigate the river of the world, then it can’t be wrong.” — Sherman Alexie

20. “If I draw a cartoon of a flower, then every man, woman, and child in the world can look at it and say, ‘That’s a flower.’” — Sherman Alexie

21. “I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other… It was like being Indian was my job, but it was only a part-time job.” — Sherman Alexie

22. “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.” — Sherman Alexie

23. “I guess a fake life inside a cartoon is a lot better than his real-life… So I draw cartoons to make him happy, to give him other worlds to live inside.” — Sherman Alexie

24. “It’s one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they’re the four hugest words in the world when they’re put together. You can do it.” — Sherman Alexie

25. “But I can’t blame my parents for our poverty because my mother and father are the twin suns around which I obit, and my world would explode without them.” — Sherman Alexie

What Happens to Junior?

When Junior transfers to his new school, he has difficulty fitting in, but after standing up to a bully by punching him, Junior starts to get respect.

Eventually, Junior is accepted at his new school, but he must manage to fit into his new “world” without losing what makes him who he is.

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