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.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of valuing each moment in life, just as one would value each moment in a good book.
Sherman Alexie's quote draws a parallel between life and literature, suggesting that just as a well-crafted book holds significance in every moment, so too should we appreciate and take seriously each moment of our own lives. This perspective encourages mindfulness and a deeper engagement with our experiences, reminding us that life, like a story, is made up of moments that contribute to the overall narrative.
In practice
Using this quote during a motivational speech about personal growth.
Gordie, the white boy genius, gave me this book by a Russian dude named Tolstoy, who wrote, 'Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Well, I hate to argue with a Russian genius, but Tolstoy didn't know Indians, and he didn't know that all Indian families are unhappy for the same exact reasons: the frikkin' booze.
My wife was the first romantic partner who understood both American and native parts of me - not so much the positive stuff, but the damage.
I draw because words are too unpredictable. I draw because words are too limited. If you speak and write in English, or Spanish, or Chinese, or any other language, then only a certain percentage of human beings will get your meaning. But when you draw a picture everybody can understand it. 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.
We all have to find our own ways to say good-bye.
I write books for teenagers because I vividly remember what it felt like to be a teen facing everyday and epic dangers. I don't write to protect them. It's far too late for that. I write to give them weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.
A lot of people have no idea that right now Y.A. (young adult). is the Garden of Eden of literature.
The world doesn't want to be punished. It wants to remain in darkness. It doesn't want to be told that what it believes is false. If you also don't want to be corrected, then you might as well leave the church and spend your time at the bar and brothel. But if you want to be saved-and remember that there's another life after this one-you must accept correction.
Few people at the beginning of the nineteenth century needed an adman to tell them what they wanted.
When you live completely in each moment, without expecting anything, you have no idea of time.
The addiction to sports, therefore, in a peculiar degree marks an arrested development in man's moral nature.
When I was younger I was looking for this magic meaning of life. It's very simple now. Making the lives of others better, doing something of lasting value. That's the meaning of life, it's that simple.
The soul of man, left to its own natural level, is a potentially lucid crystal left in darkness. It is perfect in its own nature, but it lacks something that it can only receive from outside and above itself. But when the light shines in it, it becomes in a manner transformed into light and seems to lose its nature in the splendor of a higher nature, the nature of the light that is in it.
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