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Readers need to stop assuming characters are white if race isn't explicitly defined.

Roxane Gay

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Roxane Gay
Age: 49
Born: 1974
Born: October 15
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Scrabble Player
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Needs
Defined
Characters
Reader
Stop
Race
White
Explicitly
Character
Readers
Need
Assuming

More quotes by Roxane Gay

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I love writing fiction because I can totally lose myself and I get to make up the rules of the world that I'm writing.
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Books are often far more than just books.
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Violence is not the answer but neither is peace.
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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.
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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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Diversity in literature is, in part, about representation - who is telling the stories and who stories are told about.
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I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm an insomniac. I just make the time and I read and write really fast so that makes a lot possible for me. I wish I had an explanation for it. I'm grateful for it.
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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.
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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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With my writing, I generally just pretend that no one's reading it. I allow myself that delusion so that I can write the things that I write.
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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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Good fiction challenges us as much as it entertains and these days, we could do with both of these things.
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Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.
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My fiction is a very accurate reflection of the world we live in. Certainly, in some stories, that reflection is amplified but America elected a man who enjoys grabbing women by their pussies.
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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.
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People of color are not under any kind of obligation beyond working hard, doing their best, and learning from their mistakes.
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When I write on Twitter, I do other things: I'm working, grading, or reading, and I'm procrastinating, and I'll pop on Twitter and be like, Hey, what's up? Yogurt's delicious.
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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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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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