To receive this award from an organization I admire so much makes me totally happy and grateful.

I think ethnic and regional labels are insulting to writers and really put restrictions on them. People don't think your work is quite as universal.

Nobody would take checks from Indians, nobody would give them any credit, and nobody would let them drink in the bars. There was a rudeness, a brusqueness, with which the Indians were treated constantly. At a very young age, that had entered my consciousness.

The title of the poems was The Only Bar in Dixon. We sent it out to The New Yorker on a fluke, and they took them and printed all three in the same issue.

Before, Indian people had been so defeated, they were always looking for outsiders, for the government, to somehow come in and fix things. But now, they seem to realize that they're the only ones who can save themselves.

The townspeople outside the reservations had a very superior attitude toward Indians, which was kind of funny, because they weren't very wealthy; they were on the fringes of society themselves.

I wrote a lot in study hall to while away the hours.

I am definitely a storyteller, but probably not a traditional Storyteller.

I used to object to being called an Indian writer, and would always say I was a writer who happened to be an Indian, and who happened to write about Indians.

Our literature is in great shape.

In a lot of Indian societies, spirituality has been lost, I think it's still the best way of looking at the world for Indians - better than any organized religion in this country.

Richard Hugo taught me that anyone with a desire to write, an ear for language and a bit of imagination could become a writer. He also, in a way, gave me permission to write about northern Montana.

My poems were just kind of all over the place. They had no focus, no location, nothing. Kind of a series of images that could have been set anywhere. A lot of the poems were just exercises for myself.

The economic piece is still missing, since it's so hard to attract industry to reservations, but spiritually and educationally, they're doing just fine. Each tribe has a community college now, and they teach the language, they teach the traditions.

To receive this award from an organization I admire so much makes me totally happy and grateful.

I wander around, get the lay of the land and try to imagine what kind of people would have lived there in that historical period. What would they eat? What kind of clothing would they wear? How did they shelter themselves? How did they get around?

I do believe in the viability of Indian spiritualism.

I know of my sex appeal. I know about sexuality, and I know how to use it - tastefully, of course.

The concept of monogamy is an inheritance of a medieval time, when family would carry the tradition of the name and certain privileges. It's a way of organizing society, perhaps.

But now I really don't want to work unless I really, really care about a project.

This fanaticism is what feeds terrorism. And this is precisely why Muslims must play an active role in opposing hate sermons and incitement to terrorism and extremism in their mosques.

I think, basically, I am an actor. Sometimes I'm an actor who's writing and sometimes an actor who's directing, but I think if I'm forced to fill out a form for my tax return, 'actor' is the first thing I write down.

The expectation was that 'True Confessions' would be my first published book, but that didn't happen. After it was rejected by every publisher in New York and Canada, I shoved it in a closet and went on to write and publish my next three books.

We need a visionary leader with very big and bold ideas. This is a very big, very bold country.

My driving and irons are the best part of my game. Growing to be 5-foot-11 has certainly helped.

I kept my head; I mean, I've never been one of those people who ended up in the gutter with sick in my hair.

I like to aim for significance over success because rarely can you be significant and also successful, but many people can be successful and not significant.

The big challenge for me is that my nature is more towards comedy, so I understand when a comedy thing is working; I know when I'm not bored in a comedy.

A naked woman in heels is a beautiful thing. A naked man in shoes looks like a fool.

I wish every woman would love herself and embrace what she was given naturally.

People who aren't complicated in real life come through as pretty bland on the screen. Most great performers are not very happy and well adjusted. Perhaps that's the price they pay for being originals.

The America I know is great - not because government made it great but because ordinary citizens like me, like my father and like you are given the opportunity every day to do extraordinary things.

The only goal in life is to be happy, genuinely, intensely and consistently, regardless of what it looks like to others.

You need beauty to be a model but not to be a role model.

I do believe that I'm an addict on one level or another at all times.

Sensationalism sells: Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story.

I'm happy that I'm finally getting some lines in my face. I always looked too young for the kind of roles I wanted. It was constraining. My face didn't fit my innards until I reached 40.

Here's the thing about 'Cabin in the Woods.' I did virtually no research on this movie.

Performance capture, for me, is finding the essence of a performance.

We call a child's mind 'small' simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort.

My dad was phenomenal. Born in Mexico, lived poor, didn't graduate from college, and becomes head of a car company and then governor of a state. I can't imagine I would have ever thought about running for office had I not seen my dad do it.