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Top 30 Tony Hillerman Quotes (2025 Update)

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.”

1. “Being Indian is not blood as much as it is culture.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”

2. “From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “IF you are not for yourself, who will be for you? If you are only for yourself, what are you? If not now, when?”

3. “IF you are not for yourself, who will be for you? If you are only for yourself, what are you? If not now, when?”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I always try to make the setting fit the story I have in mind.”

4. “I always try to make the setting fit the story I have in mind.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I’m getting to be like a white man,” she said. “I’m getting in a hurry for you to tell me what this is all about.”

5. “I’m getting to be like a white man,” she said. “I’m getting in a hurry for you to tell me what this is all about.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.”

6. “An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry.”

7. “Coyote is always out there waiting, and Coyote is always hungry.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “The highest praise a writer can give another is to say he wishes he had written his book. I wish I had written Forty Words for Sorrow. Giles Blunt has a tremendous talent. If you miss Forty Words for Sorrow, you’ll miss one of best novels of 2001.”

8. “The highest praise a writer can give another is to say he wishes he had written his book. I wish I had written Forty Words for Sorrow. Giles Blunt has a tremendous talent. If you miss Forty Words for Sorrow, you’ll miss one of best novels of 2001.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “A Yellow Raft on Blue Water. He’d left it opened to page 158. A hard place to stop.”

9. “A Yellow Raft on Blue Water. He’d left it opened to page 158. A hard place to stop.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Thoughts, and words that spring from them, bend the individual’s reality. To speak of death is to invite it. To think of sorrow is to produce it.”

10. “Thoughts, and words that spring from them, bend the individual’s reality. To speak of death is to invite it. To think of sorrow is to produce it.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college.”

11. “The essays in The Great Taos Bank Robbery were my project to win a Master of Arts degree in English when I quit being a newspaper editor and went back to college.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. Spring dried up. No water. The Hopi, and the Christian, maybe the Moslem, they pray for rain. The Navajo has the proper ceremony done to restore himself to harmony with the drought. You see what I mean. The system is designed to recognize what’s beyond human power to change, and then to change the human’s attitude to be content with the inevitable.” – Tony Hillerman, Sacred Clowns, 1993.”

12. “Terrible drought, crops dead, sheep dying. Spring dried up. No water. The Hopi, and the Christian, maybe the Moslem, they pray for rain. The Navajo has the proper ceremony done to restore himself to harmony with the drought. You see what I mean. The system is designed to recognize what’s beyond human power to change, and then to change the human’s attitude to be content with the inevitable.” – Tony Hillerman, Sacred Clowns, 1993.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I am 82 years old. I imagine that I will keep on writing as long as anyone wants to keep reading.”

13. “I am 82 years old. I imagine that I will keep on writing as long as anyone wants to keep reading.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.”

14. “A writer is like a bag lady going through life with a sack and a pointed stick collecting stuff.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I try to make my books reflect humanity as I see it.”

15. “I try to make my books reflect humanity as I see it.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I hear you’re a medicine man. I heard you are a singer of the Blessing Way. Is that right?” Chee looked slightly stubborn. “Yes sir,” he said. “I would like to ask you to sing one for me,” Leaphorn said.”

16. “I hear you’re a medicine man. I heard you are a singer of the Blessing Way. Is that right?” Chee looked slightly stubborn. “Yes sir,” he said. “I would like to ask you to sing one for me,” Leaphorn said.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one’s clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.”

17. “Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one’s clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “My dad taught us that being late is really rude. It tells the other person you think you’re more important than they are.”

18. “My dad taught us that being late is really rude. It tells the other person you think you’re more important than they are.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Don’t think a man don’t care about one goat because he’s got a thousand of ’em,” Hosteen Nakai would say. “He’s got a thousand because he cares more about goats than he cares about his relatives.”

19. “Don’t think a man don’t care about one goat because he’s got a thousand of ’em,” Hosteen Nakai would say. “He’s got a thousand because he cares more about goats than he cares about his relatives.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “The first Chapter Law is, “Don’t spend much time on it. You’re going to have to rewrite it.””

20. “The first Chapter Law is, “Don’t spend much time on it. You’re going to have to rewrite it.””

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “By whiteman’s standards, Leaphorn thought, Bowlegs had a net worth of maybe one hundred dollars. The white world’s measure of his life. And what would the Navajo measure be? The Dinee made a harder demand – that man find his place in the harmony of things.”

21. “By whiteman’s standards, Leaphorn thought, Bowlegs had a net worth of maybe one hundred dollars. The white world’s measure of his life. And what would the Navajo measure be? The Dinee made a harder demand – that man find his place in the harmony of things.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Leaphorn didn’t comment. It was the decision he would have made. Handle it on Navajo time. No reason to rush in there.”

22. “Leaphorn didn’t comment. It was the decision he would have made. Handle it on Navajo time. No reason to rush in there.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Having grown up in Oklahoma when it was one of the last states which prohibited liquor, I grew up with War On Drugs, where every teenager knew who the bootleggers were.”

23. “Having grown up in Oklahoma when it was one of the last states which prohibited liquor, I grew up with War On Drugs, where every teenager knew who the bootleggers were.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Although I wasnt able to get a visa for Vietnam, I was able to talk with swift boat veterans to get a feel for the time and place, and I visited a tropical prison in the Philippines to get a sense of what a Vietnamese prison might have been like.”

24. “Although I wasnt able to get a visa for Vietnam, I was able to talk with swift boat veterans to get a feel for the time and place, and I visited a tropical prison in the Philippines to get a sense of what a Vietnamese prison might have been like.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Women are extremely important shapers of my own life.”

25. “Women are extremely important shapers of my own life.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart.”

26. “You write for two people, yourself and your audience, who are usually better educated and at least as smart.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “How can you stop writing?”

27. “How can you stop writing?”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “I know what I write about seems exotic to a lot of people, but not for me. I pulled up to an old trading post and saw a few elderly Navajos sitting on a bench. I felt right at home.”

28. “I know what I write about seems exotic to a lot of people, but not for me. I pulled up to an old trading post and saw a few elderly Navajos sitting on a bench. I felt right at home.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “The red light changed the color of her shirt, and her faded jeans, and her face. Her hair was disheveled, her expression intent, and, taken all together, she looked absolutely beautiful to Jim Chee. It would be a lot better, he thought, if friends didn’t look like that.”

29. “The red light changed the color of her shirt, and her faded jeans, and her face. Her hair was disheveled, her expression intent, and, taken all together, she looked absolutely beautiful to Jim Chee. It would be a lot better, he thought, if friends didn’t look like that.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Navajos did not kill with cold-blooded premeditation. Nor did they kill for profit. To do so violated the scale of values of The People. Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one’s clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.”

30. “Navajos did not kill with cold-blooded premeditation. Nor did they kill for profit. To do so violated the scale of values of The People. Beyond meeting simple immediate needs, the Navajo Way placed little worth on property. In fact, being richer than one’s clansmen carried with it a social stigma. It was unnatural, and therefore suspicious.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Did he expect to be in a hurry coming down? Maybe, Leaphorn thought. Maybe that was it. Time. But Navajos didn’t hurry. In fact, there was no word in the Navajo language for time.”

31. “Did he expect to be in a hurry coming down? Maybe, Leaphorn thought. Maybe that was it. Time. But Navajos didn’t hurry. In fact, there was no word in the Navajo language for time.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Memorize places,” his uncle had told him. “Settle your eyes on a place and learn it. See it under the snow, and when first grass is growing, and as the rain falls on it. Feel it and smell it, walk on it, touch the stones, and it will be with you forever. When you are far away, you can call it back. When you need it, it is there, in your mind.”

32. “Memorize places,” his uncle had told him. “Settle your eyes on a place and learn it. See it under the snow, and when first grass is growing, and as the rain falls on it. Feel it and smell it, walk on it, touch the stones, and it will be with you forever. When you are far away, you can call it back. When you need it, it is there, in your mind.”

— Tony Hillerman

Tony Hillerman Quote: “Leaphorn had found that listening carefully to lies is sometimes very revealing of the truth.”

33. “Leaphorn had found that listening carefully to lies is sometimes very revealing of the truth.”

— Tony Hillerman

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