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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
Writing
Seen
People
Heard
Often
Write
Also
Women
Foremost
Firsts
Mostly
First
Aren

More quotes by Roxane Gay

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Just write and love what you're writing. And if you're not loving what you're writing, take a look at why and fix that.
Roxane Gay
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Violence is not the answer but neither is peace.
Roxane Gay
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Truth can hurt so very much.
Roxane Gay
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People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.
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 am interested in intense, unbreakable emotional connections and oftentimes, such connections can be found between siblings.
Roxane Gay
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When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.
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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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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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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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
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Nemeses aren't born. They are made.
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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When you look past the image, a celebrity is merely a person you know nothing about.
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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I'm fat positive, in that I don't see fat as a bad thing. But what I do see as a bad thing is how I'm treated. I can have the most positive outlook in the world, but that is not going to change how hecklers and people walking down the street are yelling at me.
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 was called a feminist, and what I heard was, 'You are an angry, sex-hating, man-hating victim lady person.' This caricature is how feminists have been warped by the people who fear feminism most, the same people who have the most to lose when feminism succeeds.
Roxane Gay
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I can't please everyone. I am trying not to let the pressure consume me.
Roxane Gay
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The actual act of writing brings me such pleasure - to tell stories, to engage in cultural criticism, to reflect, to question, all of it is invigorating.
Roxane Gay