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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: 50
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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Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.
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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 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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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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I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.
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There's certainly a portion of my brain that is always tuned to making wry observations about the world, but that portion of my brain was alive and well before Twitter.
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Feminism is definitely a part of everything I do.
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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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I see my tweets as a current joining a bunch of other currents in the world's craziest ocean.
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So often feminism is built up as this thing where you have to be perfect. You have to be consistent and you can't ever deviate. That's just not realistic.
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When you look past the image, a celebrity is merely a person you know nothing about.
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If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught.
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Nemeses aren't born. They are made.
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Most of my favorite tweets go completely ignored but most of my favorite tweets are probably really lame or inside jokes between me and my [redacted]. See what I did there?
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We don't all have to believe in the same feminism. Feminism can be pluralistic so long as we respect the different feminisms we carry with us, so long as we give enough of a damn to try to minimize the fractures among us. Feminism will better succeed with collective effort, but feminist success can also rise out of personal conduct.
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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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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 read constantly because there is so much to learn from the writing in the world.
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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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I probably write the same story a hundred different ways. I suppose right now I am looking for the 101st different way to write that same story. And the 102nd, and 103rd and 111th and 133rd.
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