Louise Erdrich Quotes

The first rule of survival is: Make your own rules. The hell anyone thinks about the way you're acting; listen only to yourself.

I don't do what you people want. I Do What I Want!

I have to say I have never been comfortable with somebody else telling me what to do - in any way.

I guess I'm just fiercely independent.

I do not choose to be a common man. It is my right to be an uncommon man—if I can. I seek opportunity, not security. I do not wish to be a kept citizen, humbled and dulled by having the state look after me.

I do things my way. I don't do things to make people happy or appease them.

I'm always trying to get my characters to the point of complete rebelliousness. I like that attitude that characters feel when they own their lives. There's something beautiful in the moments when characters disobey.

Even me mum can't tell me what to do.

You just gotta live your life and do it your way.

I think one thing my mother always instilled in me was a sense of individuality. Being an only child, I never thought I had to rely on anyone. I was never afraid to be alone and I was never afraid to be my own person. So when all my friends were like, "Let's smoke weed," I was like, "I'm not doing it." It wasn't because I was trying to be a rebel or because I didn't like it or I was anti-drugs. I just didn't do it because I didn't want to do it, and if I didn't want to do it, I wasn't doing it. That was it.

Lolitas do not recognize any authority. They follow only the values they have chosen for themselves, regardless of what anybody might say.

If a life could have a theme song - and I believe every worthwhile one has - mine is a religion, an obsession, a mania or all of these expressed in one word - individualism. I was born with that obsession, and I've never seen and do not know now a cause more worthy, more misunderstood, more seemingly hopeless and tragically needed.

I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married

I am Zarathustra the Godless: where shall I find my equal? All those who give themselves their own will and renounce all submission, they are my equals.

I've always been like nah, I'm going to have it my way, that way, when I look out that window at the end of the day, I can say I did it my way, whether it's on a higher level, or a level where I can just maintain, I can still say I did it my way.

For one cannot assume that God exists to help people who are too cowardly and too lazy to help themselves and think that God exists only to make up for the weakness of mankind. He does not exist for that purpose. He has always, at all times, blessed only those who were prepared to fight their own battles.

I live my own life and nurse my own wounds. It's not the best way to live. But it's the way I am.

I'm not trying to keep anybody happy.

People have said I'm a puppet, an instrument of my grandfather, but I think they quickly realised that I'm my own person, that I have autonomy in my actions. I think they rapidly realised I could look after myself.

When my mother tells me to do something, I'll do my own thing. A strong character can be good, but sometimes it is not good. I hope it's good in my case.

No man bosses me around, and no man ever will.

I have an independent streak. You know, it's kind of hard to tell a independent woman what to do.

And don't consult anyone's opinions but your own.

I don't live on other people's terms.

I've always done things my way.