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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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Roxane Gay
Age: 50
Born: 1974
Born: October 15
Essayist
Journalist
Novelist
Scrabble Player
Writer
Omaha
Nebraska
Firsts
Mostly
First
Aren
Writing
Seen
People
Heard
Often
Write
Also
Women
Foremost

More quotes by Roxane Gay

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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.
Roxane Gay
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Truth can hurt so very much.
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.
Roxane Gay
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Twitter is my happy place. I am not there to overthink 140 characters.
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 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
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Feminism is definitely a part of everything I do.
Roxane Gay
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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.
Roxane Gay
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I love Twitter. It doesn't keep me from writing and I think it's a really convenient scapegoat when the truth is that the real issue is self-control. I am totally fine admitting i have none. I'm not going to blame Twitter for affecting my writing. And also, Twitter doesn't affect my writing.
Roxane Gay
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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?
Roxane Gay
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Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.
Roxane Gay
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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.
Roxane Gay
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Books are often far more than just books.
Roxane Gay
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What is it like to be connected to someone you can never get away from, for better or worse? I love trying to answer that question.
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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Fiction offers escape but it also interrogates the world we live in, whether the past, present or future.
Roxane Gay
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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.
Roxane Gay
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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.
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
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Oftentimes, when a woman demands accountability, respect, or consideration, she is crazy or nagging or whatever.
Roxane Gay