Quote

Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.

Roxane Gay

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Roxane Gay
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: October 15
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Scrabble Player
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Many
Violence
Common
Lives
Part
Women

More quotes by Roxane Gay

Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
I would like to believe that most people, regardless of gender, are good and kind. The good men in my stories are the rule. It's the bad men that are the exception and because I tend toward the dark in my fiction, you see more of the exception than the rule.
Roxane Gay
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
Oftentimes, when a woman demands accountability, respect, or consideration, she is crazy or nagging or whatever.
Roxane Gay
Image
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
Image
Feminism is definitely a part of everything I do.
Roxane Gay
Image
People of color are not under any kind of obligation beyond working hard, doing their best, and learning from their mistakes.
Roxane Gay
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught.
Roxane Gay
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
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
Image
People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.
Roxane Gay
Image
Books are often far more than just books.
Roxane Gay
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.
Roxane Gay
Image
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
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
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.
Roxane Gay
Image
I can't please everyone. I am trying not to let the pressure consume me.
Roxane Gay
Image
Readers need to stop assuming characters are white if race isn't explicitly defined.
Roxane Gay