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You have to be consistent. You have to be yourself. You have to be committed to what you're doing. You have to not be afraid to be ambitious.

Roxane Gay

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Roxane Gay
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: October 15
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Scrabble Player
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Ambitious
Consistent
Committed
Afraid

More quotes by Roxane Gay

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Good fiction challenges us as much as it entertains and these days, we could do with both of these things.
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I am fine with my books being categorized as African-American literature but I hope they are also considered Haitian-American literature and American literature. All of these things are part of who I am and what I write.
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If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught.
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And all the women are feminine, so we never get to see masculine presenting women and we never get to frame that as beautiful, which it is, and that's incredibly frustrating, so for every gain or benefit that the internet offers there is a liability.
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I wrote myself back together. I wrote myself toward a stronger version of myself . . . Through writing and feminism, I also found that if I was a little bit brave, another woman might hear me and see me and recognize that none of us are the nothing the world tries to tell us we are.
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Books are often far more than just books.
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You don't necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don't have to apologize for it. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.
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Oftentimes, when a woman demands accountability, respect, or consideration, she is crazy or nagging or whatever.
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I approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem.
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Fiction offers escape but it also interrogates the world we live in, whether the past, present or future.
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My tweeting is cool and calm unless I am riled up about something and then I just surrender to the fury of my fingers.
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We need to stop playing Privilege or Oppression Olympics because we'll never get anywhere until we find more effective ways of talking through difference. We should be able to say, “This is my truth,” and have that truth stand without a hundred clamoring voices shouting, giving the impression that multiple truths cannot coexist.
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I write for myself, first and foremost and I also write for people, mostly women, who just want to be seen and heard and all too often aren't.
Roxane Gay
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Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.
Roxane Gay
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I read constantly because there is so much to learn from the writing in the world.
Roxane Gay
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I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.
Roxane Gay
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I am a bad feminist and a good woman. I am trying to become better in how I think and say and do - without abandoning what makes me human.
Roxane Gay
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It's gut instinct that helps me determine how to write a story. I love the surreal because I am faced with the challenge of making the unbelievable believable. That challenge is thrilling.
Roxane Gay
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The other day, I saw a blog post where a woman wrote about why she was unfollowing me and that made me feel incredibly self-conscious and embarrassed about my tweets. I also feel more exposed now that I've become a more visible writer but then I try to get over all that and just use Twitter the way I want.
Roxane Gay
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Somewhere along the line we started misinterpreting the First Amendment and this idea of the freedom of speech the amendment grants us. We are free to speak as we choose without fear of prosecution or persecution, but we are not free to speak as we choose without consequence.
Roxane Gay