“And I hope a lot of people get a sense of that; not to take away that we also have that warrior spirit.”

He was out with his friends drinking and on medication for depression, and he didn’t come out of the water alive.

After that movie I said, “Y’know what, I have to realistically wear my emotions now when I do a job. That’s gotta be as real as it gets. It’s not just dialogue anymore.”

I do a lot of inspirational talks for kids, to motivate them to change their lives and give them hope.

This movie shows that perspective from Scott’s character, and I love it. It shows the American Indians as the ones who respect and help out when people are needed. It’s a nice little twist.

Well to me growing, up I’ve had my own psychological war with my parents dying at such a young age. My mother was killed by a drunk driver, then two months later my father drowned.

I’m not gonna fall. I’m tired of falling. I’m tired of seeing our people fall. I don’t believe in failure.

Smoke Signals really mirrored the way I grew up and how I felt, and that movie was the first time I’d dealt with my parents’ death and how I felt that loss and sadness and anger.

It’s what we put in our minds and our hearts to succeed. And success isn’t about money.

Acting for me was an escape and it wasn’t until Smoke Signals that made me realize that acting is a personal development and challenge to grow.

I think when I started acting it was the first time I got the freedom of expression.

When faced with structural injustice, especially in the form of oppressive military occupations,

We [Americans] have a historical trauma when it comes to the past relationships when it comes to Native Americans and the history of how America was created.

Ever since I started acting, I’ve always spoken to our people about identity. I’ve spoken to kids, telling them: “Where do I get my strength to push through the barriers to get me where I’m at today? It’s my culture and my traditions, you know?

Growing up with sexual abuse and having to be in gangs and dealing with my own trauma; finding the cultural identity when I was 16, and learning those traditional ways saved me from hurting myself.

We [Native Americans] respect being human beings, but also the natural and spiritual world and I thought that came across wonderfully

I was able to express certain emotions and feelings that I could put into other characters, so it was a good way for me to run away from ho I personally was.

Overall, my books represent a kind of shared communion and meditation with my fellow human beings.

Movies are only the result of where we are as human beings.

What I would like you always to do is what I try humbly to do myself, that is, never to say or to do anything which would wound the feelings or the self-respect of any human being

Abortion can never be safe. Any procedure where “success” means the killing of another human being can certainly not be safe.

A movie is about human beings, about humanity.

It doesn’t have to be the Grand Canyon, it could be a city street, it could be the face of another human being – Everything is full of wonder.

I really believe I know why my designs were better than any other human being, but I don’t want to take credit for starting Apple, for turning the world around or anything like that.

You mean that people who continue virtuous in an old-fashioned way must inevitably suffer in times like these?