Quotes: Thomas King

"He had read somewhere that one of the keys to good mental health, and by extension, physical health, was something called "tempered self-indulgence."

–– Thomas King (b. 1943), American-born Canadian Cherokee author 

Source: Thomas King. Cold Skies. Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018, p. 101. 

via: Anvil Knapsack Sketchbook, 2019, p. 77.

Quotes 207: Thomas King

"Did you ever wonder how it is we imagine the world in the way we do, how it is we imagine ourselves, if not through our stories. And in the English-speaking world, nothing could be easier, for we are surrounded by stories, and we can trace these stories back to other stories and from there back to the beginnings of language. For these are our stories, the cornerstones of our culture."

–– Thomas King (b. 1943), American-born Canadian Cherokee author 

Source: Thomas King. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto, Ontario: House of Anansi Press, 2003; p. 95. This was a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Massey lecture. Thomas King is the first Massey lecturer of Indigenous descent in its then 42 year history. What took so long???

via Commonplace Book 2020-2021, p. 116.

Quotes 42: Thomas King

"Mimi has a theory that travel makes time stop. Or at least slows it down. Her reasoning has a simple elegance. When you're home, you fall into routines. These routines are so familiar that you do them without even thinking or noticing the passage of time. You get up, have breakfast, check your emails, go to work, have lunch, finish work, come home, have dinner, watch some television, go to bed. And every so often, you look up and wonder where the heck the time went.

"When you're travelling, everything is new and every minute is taken up with decision-making.

"Tick tock, tick tock.

"Exhausting." 

–– Thomas King (b. 1943), Canadian-American Cherokee author 

Source: Thomas King. Indians on Vacation: A Novel. Toronto, Ontario: HarperCollins Publishers, Ltd, 2020, p. 43. 

via Book of Commonplace 2020-present, p. 87-88.