41 Quotes by Tony Hillerman

Everything is connected. The wing of the corn beetle affects the direction of the wind, the way the sand drifts, the way the light reflects into the eye of man beholding his reality. All is part of totality, and in this totality man finds his hozro, his way of walking in harmony, with beauty all around him.

The building was of stone, originally erected, Leaphorn had been told, by a Church of Christ missionary early in McGinnis's tenure as trader and postmaster. It had been abandoned after the preacher's optimism had been eroded by his inability to cause the Dinee to accept the idea that God had a personal and special interest in humans.

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.

Leaphorn sat on a slab of sandstone and considered what these tracks told him. It wasn’t much. He could guess that the killing hadn’t been premeditated — at least not completely. One who plans to carry a body a long distance uphill over rough ground does not wear moccasins if he has any respect for his feet.

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

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

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

The Navajo language is too specific and precise to lend itself to effective profanity. Leaphorn cursed in Spanish and then -- at length -- in English.

But would the man who hunted him still be here? Leaphorn considered this. The man would have known he had flushed his bird. He needed to be a fairly competent tracker to find George’s kill site. But once George was running, covering his tracks, he would have to be much better than that. He would have to be as good as Joe Leaphorn — and perhaps better than Leaphorn. As far as Leaphorn knew, there were no better trackers than himself. Certainly no Zuni, or white man.