Michael Horse

“You never come home depressed from a cartoon job.”

“As a native actor, you don't get that much chance to work in art, especially television.”

“The FBI was formed because the gangsters were better armed, better financed.”

“If I wait for the great definitive story of my people to come around, I'm never going to work.”

“Wherever you repress people, they get hold of a crayon and a bit of scrap paper, and they chronicle their lives and their existence and their history.”

“It's amazing to me that some kids are surprised to find out Indians are still alive.”

“The people in Indiana are so kind and so genuine.”

“The old image of Tonto and the Lone Ranger was one that we, as Indian people, didn't care much for; it was kind of a second-class citizen.”

“My opinion is that the movie business should show an accurate picture, but I think the responsibility lies in the educational system. Most of the educational material I've seen on the Native American does not portray an actual picture.”

“I was taught that you can't be a healthy individual without art, music, or nature in your life. All my art is tied into inner cultural experience. It has to do with music or ceremonies or nature, even the funny ones.”

“I'd like to win an Oscar and then refuse it so I can protest the way they've treated Marlon Brando.”

“Without 'Twin Peaks,' there would have been no 'Northern Exposure,' 'Picket Fences,' 'X-Files' or 'Alias.' It started the movement of 'off-center' television.”

“I just wanted to be a working character actor.”

“Cartoons are probably my favorite thing to do.”

“The main problem with films is that everybody always thinks of us as a violent people. We are not. We are spiritual. And when you show someone without a sense of humor or families, which is the way you usually see Indians in movies, then they are without a spiritual base and become subhuman.”

“Growing up in a traditional environment, I was taught the importance of art, how it's connected to the soul, how it makes a human being. This made me understand and cherish American art forms.”

“I have turned down soaps operas. I want to be outside, and I want to have the gun. It is cowboys and Indians to me.”

“For years, I kept the two separate: Michael Horse the artist and Michael Horse the actor. I like the acting, but I'm an artist; that's my identity.”

“I'm an activist.”

“I like being outdoors. I like action films.”