Leslie Marmon Silko Quotes

The truth of course was otherwise, but Lecha had never felt she owed anyone the truth, unless it was truth about their own lives, and then they had to pay her to tell them.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko

He made a story for all of them, a story to give them strength. The words of the story poured out of his mouth as if they had substance, pebbles and stone extending to hold the corporal up...knees from buckling...hands from letting go of the blanket.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko

Distances and days existed in themselves then; they all had a story. They were not barriers. If a person wanted to get to the moon, there is a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions... on whether you knew the story of how others before you had gone. He had believed in the stories for a long time, until the teachers at Indian school taught him not to believe in that kind of nonsense. But they had been wrong.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko

Anybody can act violently--there is nothing to it, but not every person is able to destroy his enemy with words.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko

I will tell you something about stories . . . They aren't just entertainment. Don't be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko

He had to keep busy, he had to keep moving so that the sinews connected behind his eyes did not slip loose and spin his eyes to the interior of his skull where the scenes waited for him.

~ Leslie Marmon Silko