James Welch > Quotes

“There is no dishonor in wisdom.”
― James Welch

“He had followed the calendar, the years, time-
Bird farted.
And it came to me, as though it were riding one moment of the gusting wind, as though bird had had it in him all the time and had passed it to me in that one moment of instant corruption.”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“But the distance I felt came not from country or people; it came from within me. I was as distant from myself as a hawk from the moon.”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“Charging Elk would make his own prayers when the time came. But his prayers would be of thanks for having lived on this earth, not for his “nagi’s” future.”
― James Welch, The Heartsong of Charging Elk

“You must understand how people think in desperate times. When their bellies are full, they can afford to be happy and generous with each other – the meat is shared, the women work and gossip, men gamble – it’s a good time and you do not see things clearly. There is no need. But when the pot is empty and your guts are tight in your belly, you begin to look around. The hunger sharpens your eye.”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“I've always thought that a writer has the responsibility to speak for those people who can't speak for themselves.”
― James Welch

“Virgil First Raise:
Sometimes you have to lean into the wind to stand straight.

Yellow Calf:
Being dead isn't so bad once you get used to it.

Young Virgil:
Where are we going, daddy?

John First Raise:
We'll know once we been there, enit?”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“These people have not changed, thought Kipp, but the world they live in h as. You could look at it one of two ways: Either the world is shrinking or that other world, the one the white man brought with him, is expanding. Either way, the Pikuni loses.”
― James Welch, Fools Crow

“I think there's a deep need for stories in all of us. Stories help us make sense of the world.”
― James Welch

“Gravely

we watched her go the way she came,
unenvied, wild—cold as last spring rain.
Mule deer browsed her garden down
to labored earth, seed and clean carrots.

Dusk is never easy, yet she took it
like her plastic saint, grandly, the day
we cut those morning glories down
and divvied up her odds and ends.

Daughters burned sheets the following Monday.
All over God's city, the high white stars
welcomed her the way she'd planned: a chilly
satellite ringing round the great malicious moon.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“I think heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things that draw on some deeper resources of spirit”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“Men, even experienced warriors, do not always listen to reason when they are close to the
prize. The closer to the prize, the more the fever obscures the judgment.”
― James Welch, Fools Crow

“And now, here, in these mountains
that hold you from yourself, the wind
blowing down your final face,
you tell us what we know: Time is clean
and brief for girls in a wild time,
past for ladies up like smoke in narrow wind.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Moon is speaking
woman to the ancient fire. Always woman.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Morning and the snow might fall forever.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Say this: say in my mind

I saw your spiders weaving threads
to bandage up the day. And more,
those webs were filled with words
that tumbled meaning into wind.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Christmas comes like this: Wise men
unhurried, candles bought on credit (poor price
for calves), warriors face down in wine sleep.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Though wind has shut his ears for good, he squats
for hours at the slough, skipping stones, dreaming
of a moon, the quiet nights and not a quite done
love with a lady high in costly red shoes.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Morning brings flood to verbena, planted
by some fool who thinks July forgets
the past.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“The justice of the prairie hawk
moved me; his wings tipped
the wind just right and the mouse
was any mouse. I came away,
broken from my standing spot,
dizzy with the sense of a world
trying to be right, and the mouse
a part of a wind that stirs the plains.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“I know finicky secrets.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Those red men you offended were my brothers.
Town drinkers, Buckles Pipe, Star Boy,
Billy Fox, were blood to bison. Albert Heavy Runner
was never civic. You are white and common.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“and this day
like all my days
found me badly in need
of encyclopedias”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“Disgusted, busted whites are running
for office in this town.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“He wasn't satisfied," I said.

"He accomplished any number of things."

"But none of them satisfied him."

Theresa whirled around, her eyes large and dark with outrage. "And why not?"

"He wasn't happy...”
― James Welch, Winter in the Blood

“But the way he held her when he slept made her a little afraid---for she would never be able to live without him, without this love.”
― James Welch, Fools Crow

“As we turned away,
a woman blue as night
stepped from my bundle,
rubbed her hips and sang
of a country like this far off.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“They were Pikunis and they played hard.”
― James Welch, Fools Crow

“Elephants are whispering in backyards.”
― James Welch, Riding the Earthboy 40

“We will go on, he thought; as long as Mother Earth smiles on her children, we will continue to be a people. We will live and die and live on. It is the Pikuni Way.”
― James Welch, Fools Crow