Roxane Gay
Feminism is, I hope, a way to a better future for everyone who inhabits this world. Feminism should not be something that needs a seductive marketing campaign. The idea of women moving through the world as freely as men should sell itself.Collection: Hope
I support anything that broadens the message of gender equality and tempers the stigma of the feminist label. We run into trouble, though, when we celebrate celebrity feminism while avoiding the actual work of feminism.Collection: Equality
I think the world is ambivalent about feminism. So I can't blame college students. I think they're reflecting the greater culture's attitude toward feminism. So what I can do is, in ways that are appropriate, advocate for feminism and help the students learn what feminism is about.Collection: Attitude
Long walks on the beach are the supposed holy grail of a romantic evening. The beach becomes a kind of utopia - the place where all our dreams come true.Collection: Romantic
Social media is something of a double-edged sword. At its best, social media offers unprecedented opportunities for marginalized people to speak and bring much needed attention to the issues they face. At its worst, social media also offers 'everyone' an unprecedented opportunity to share in collective outrage without reflection.Collection: Best
Maybe true love isn't out there for me, but I can sublimate my loneliness with the notion that true love is out there for someone.Collection: Love
I read too many romance novels during my formative years. I have a penchant for romantic comedies. I understand why 'Romeo and Juliet' came to such a pass.Collection: Romantic
Pink is my favourite colour. I used to say my favourite colour was black to be cool, but it is pink - all shades of pink. If I have an accessory, it is probably pink.Collection: Cool
Feminism is just an idea. It's a philosophy. It's about the equality of women in all realms. It's not about man-hating. It's not about being humorless. We have to let go of these misconceptions that have plagued feminism for 40, 50 years.Collection: Equality
I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.Collection: Feminist
I am human. I am messy. I'm not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I'm right. I am just trying - trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.Collection: Inspiring
When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example.Collection: Example
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.Collection: Moving
So many of us are reaching out, hoping someone out there will grab our hands and remind us we are not as alone as we fear.Collection: Hands
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.Collection: Talking
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.Collection: Writing
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.Collection: Being Yourself
Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves that some of us are lucky.Collection: Doe
Maybe I'm a bad feminist, but I am deeply committed to the issues important to the feminist movement. I have strong opinions about misogyny, institutional sexism that consistently places women at a disadvantage, the inequity in pay, the cult of beauty and thinness, the repeated attacks on reproductive freedom, violence against women, and on and on. I am as committed to fighting fiercely for equality as I am committed to disrupting the notion that there is an essential feminism.Collection: Inspiring
Feminism is a choice, and if a woman does not want to be a feminist, that is her right, but it is still my responsibility to fight for her rights. I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn't make certain choices for ourselves. I believe women not just in the United States but throughout the world deserve equality and freedom but know I am in no position to tell women of other cultures what that equality and freedom should look like.Collection: Believe
Writing, at its best and truest, can offer solace and salvation for both readers and writers.Collection: Writing
The notion that I should be fine with the status quo even if I am not wholly affected by the status quo is repulsive.Collection: Should
People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.Collection: People
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.Collection: Writing
We have this cultural obsession with work and productivity as if we're better people if we don't stop and take some time for ourselves.Collection: People
I approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem.Collection: Self Esteem
Fiction offers escape but it also interrogates the world we live in, whether the past, present or future.Collection: Past
If people cannot be flawed in fiction there's no place left for us to be human.Collection: People
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.Collection: People
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.Collection: Perfect
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.Collection: Ideas
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.Collection: Thinking
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.Collection: Reading
I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves.Collection: Believe
Nemeses aren't born. They are made.Collection: Destiny
I've always wanted to be a writer. I've been writing since I was probably four years old - it was nonsense, but it was still my little attempts at being a storyteller.Collection: Writing
Writing has always allowed me to escape. I was a very lonely child. Because I was very socially awkward, I would always have trouble making friends. And so reading and writing allowed me to have friends and to have an active imaginary life that really sort of kept me sane.Collection: Lonely
Books are often far more than just books.Collection: Book
Twitter is my happy place. I am not there to overthink 140 characters.Collection: Character
Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.Collection: Violence
I write toward both idealism and reality - how things are and how I wish they could be.Collection: Writing
Oftentimes, when a woman demands accountability, respect, or consideration, she is crazy or nagging or whatever.Collection: Crazy
I am trying to keep growing and improving as a writer.Collection: Trying
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.Collection: Writing
I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.Collection: Going Away
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.Collection: Book
I read constantly because there is so much to learn from the writing in the world.Collection: Writing
I look at my older writing to see where my weaknesses are and then I try to address those weaknesses and make new mistakes.Collection: Mistake
Good fiction challenges us as much as it entertains and these days, we could do with both of these things.Collection: Challenges
I like what the internet offers: the ability to get people interested in your mind, and have a chance if you're not conventionally attractive.Collection: People