For the true warriors of the world, fighting is the last resort to solving a conflict. Every effort is made to avoid bloodshed - Joy Harjo

I believe that if you do not answer the noise and urgency of your gifts, they will turn on you. Or drag you down with their immense sadness at being abandoned. (p135)

Those of fire move about the earth with inspiration and purpose. They are creative, and can consume and be consumed by their desires (p25)

I marked myself once with a knife. I was disappearing into the adolescent sea of rage and destruction. The mark of pain assured me of my own reality. The cut could speak. It had a voice that cried out when I could not make a sound in my defense. I never made such a mark again. Instead I chose to slash art onto canvas, pencil marks onto paper, and when I could no longer carry the burden of history, I found other openings. I found stories.