109+ Roxane Gay Quotes On Feminist, Empowering And Insightful

Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, and commentator. She is best known for her collection of essays, Bad Feminist, and her memoir Hunger. Gay is a prolific writer whose work focuses on identity, gender, race, and culture. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Roxane Gay on love, feminist, empowering.

Top 10 Roxane Gay Quotes

1. 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.
2. Some women being empowered does not prove the patriarchy is dead. It proves that some of us are lucky.
3. 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.
4. Nemeses aren't born. They are made.
5. People do terrible things all the time, but we don’t regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. Writing, at its best and truest, can offer solace and salvation for both readers and writers.
9. 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.
10. I don't read the comments anymore, unless they are moderated. Which is not to say censored, but I don't need to read someone saying, "You're ugly."

Roxane Gay Short Quotes

• Twitter is my happy place. I am not there to overthink 140 characters.
• I am trying so very hard to stay in the moment despite the ferocity of my ambition.
• Most of the time, writing is a lot of fun, and not a small amount of self-medication.
• I am trying to keep growing and improving as a writer.
• I'll learn how to rest, though. I can still learn new tricks.
• I don't know that anyone in the United States is taught to rest.
• Violence is a common part of far too many women's lives.
• I can't please everyone. I am trying not to let the pressure consume me.
• If people cannot be flawed in fiction there's no place left for us to be human.
• I don't want the success to go away. I don't want it to seem unearned.

Roxane Gay Quotes About Love

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

I write because I love doing it. — Roxane Gay

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

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

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

I love how I can see [on Twitter] some of the thoughts and ideas of my favorite cultural figures and still also chatter with my friends and family. It's a cocktail party with a fraction of the awkwardness of an actual cocktail party. — Roxane Gay

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

I love romantic comedies. I know how terrible they are, but I love them! And I don't think that makes me less of a feminist. — Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay Famous Quotes And Sayings

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

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. — Roxane Gay

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

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

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. — Roxane Gay

I approach most things in life with a dangerous level of confidence to balance my generally low self-esteem. — Roxane Gay

Sex offers incredible narrative opportunities and so many emotions are tied up in sex. Also, I mean, the erotic is always a fun creative space. — Roxane Gay

To have privilege in one or more areas does not mean you are wholly privileged. Surrendering to the acceptance of privilege is difficult, but it is really all that is expected. What I remind myself, regularly, is this: the acknowledgment of my privilege is not a denial of the ways I have been and am marginalized, the ways I have suffered. — Roxane Gay

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

The designation is useful and necessary and sometimes limiting but it is only limiting to people who think, for example, that African-American literature couldn't possibly be something they could be interested in or relate to. They have limited imaginations, which is sad. — Roxane Gay

The other day, I saw a blog post where a woman wrote about why she was unfollowing me and that made me feel incredibly self-conscious and embarrassed about my tweets. I also feel more exposed now that I've become a more visible writer but then I try to get over all that and just use Twitter the way I want. — Roxane Gay

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

Readers need to stop assuming characters are white if race isn't explicitly defined. — Roxane Gay

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. — Roxane Gay

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

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. — Roxane Gay

If I cannot rest and relax, all the work I do is for naught. — Roxane Gay

Truth can hurt so very much. — Roxane Gay

My dad is a workaholic so I take after him in this respect. — Roxane Gay

It is deeply unfair to task writers of color with unique responsibilities that we don't assign to all writers. — Roxane Gay

The past is always with you. Some people want to be protected from this truth. — Roxane Gay

Books are often far more than just books. — Roxane Gay

People of color are not under any kind of obligation beyond working hard, doing their best, and learning from their mistakes. — Roxane Gay

When you can’t find someone to follow, you have to find a way to lead by example. — Roxane Gay

I am interested in intense, unbreakable emotional connections and oftentimes, such connections can be found between siblings. — Roxane Gay

Twitter has allowed the conversation to broaden and become more inclusive. At times, the conversation is really tense but that's because we're talking about really important issues. It's not going to be easy but at least the conversations are happening. — Roxane Gay

Generally, the ways we discuss the fat body pathologize it; we treat it as a medical problem and/or a social problem that must be solved. "Morbid obesity" is in many ways saying we are the walking dead. Or walking to our death. And that is no way to live, with that sort of moniker hanging over your head at all times. I think it forces fat people to internalize a lot of unnecessary self-loathing. — Roxane Gay

Fiction offers escape but it also interrogates the world we live in, whether the past, present or future. — Roxane Gay

My dream was to write a book and see it published. I didn't dare imagine anything beyond that, so, I'm trying to keep my head on my shoulders. — Roxane Gay

Diversity in literature is, in part, about representation - who is telling the stories and who stories are told about. — Roxane Gay

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

Intellectually, I know I am worthy, however arbitrary a thing worthiness is, and have always been worthy. — Roxane Gay

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

I never imagined any of the success I am currently experiencing. — Roxane Gay

I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all. — Roxane Gay

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

I am new to superhero comics, though growing up I read Archie comics, religiously. I've been doing a lot of catching up, reading what's out there and it's been wonderful to see what's going on in contemporary comics. — Roxane Gay

The notion that I should be fine with the status quo even if I am not wholly affected by the status quo is repulsive. — Roxane Gay

No woman or man is any one thing and the men in my stories, well, some of them are good and some of them are terrible, and most of them make the lives of the women they love much harder than need be. Why? Because that's the kind of storytelling I was drawn to when I wrote these stories, most of which are at least seven years or more old. — Roxane Gay

I don't ever rest. It's a problem and hopefully something I will get a better handle on in the coming years. — Roxane Gay

I never imagined that I would be the kind of person who is recognized when I am out and about just living my life. — Roxane Gay

Violence is not the answer but neither is peace. — Roxane Gay

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

I read constantly because there is so much to learn from the writing in the world. — Roxane Gay

Good fiction challenges us as much as it entertains and these days, we could do with both of these things. — Roxane Gay

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. — Roxane Gay

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

Oftentimes, when a woman demands accountability, respect, or consideration, she is crazy or nagging or whatever. — Roxane Gay

The idea of life in France is a utopia where the women are beautiful and they eat cheese all day and wear designer clothes and are magically thin and more evolved. And that's wonderful. Over here, we're still fighting for birth control. — Roxane Gay

Whiteness is not the default in my fiction. — Roxane Gay

Feminism is definitely a part of everything I do. — Roxane Gay

Don’t flirt, have sex, or engage in emotional affairs with your friends’ significant others. This shouldn’t need to be said, but it needs to be said. That significant other is an asshole, and you don’t want to be involved with an asshole who’s used goods. If you want to be with an asshole, get a fresh asshole of your very own. They are abundant. — Roxane Gay

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. — Roxane Gay

When feminism falls short of our expectations, we decide the problem is with feminism rather than with the flawed people who act in the name of the movement. — Roxane Gay

Feminism's failings do not mean we should eschew feminism entirely. People do terrible things all the time, but we don't regularly disown our humanity. We disavow the terrible things. We should disavow the failures of feminism without disavowing its many successes and how far we have come. — Roxane Gay

When you look past the image, a celebrity is merely a person you know nothing about. — Roxane Gay

The more successful I get, the more I am reminded that in the minds of a great many people I will never be anything more than my body. No matter what I accomplish, I will be fat, first and foremost. — Roxane Gay

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

I think hunger is a natural state of being for most people. I mean, hunger is a desire - and you don't only have physical hunger, you have emotional hunger. A lot of my hungers are, in fact, emotional. I think a lot of fat people's hungers are emotional. There are things we very much want, and it can be so difficult to satisfy those hungers. Yet we try. We try so hard. — Roxane Gay

It's a very weird cultural perception that if you're fat you're dumb, that you're lazy or a loser. Clearly, those are the preconditions for fatness. You're a failure, because only a lazy person, only a dumb person, would allow themselves to get into this situation. It's appalling that this is the mindset. People generally treat fat people like we don't know anything about anything. It's incredibly demeaning. And incredibly frustrating. — Roxane Gay

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. — Roxane Gay

I play on my phone in public quite a lot. I pretend that I'm getting a very important message that I must attend to immediately. You will often see me in the middle of a huge crowd just staring intently at my phone because I just don't even know how I should interact with other humans. — Roxane Gay

I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves. — Roxane Gay

I write toward both idealism and reality - how things are and how I wish they could be. — Roxane Gay

I look at my older writing to see where my weaknesses are and then I try to address those weaknesses and make new mistakes. — Roxane Gay

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

Feminism has neglected the needs of woman of color and people of color in general. But I don't think it means that we should overlook feminism as having nothing valuable to contribute. — Roxane Gay

Emotionally, my ambition is not yet sated. Emotionally, I still feel like a kid at the adult's table, yearning for recognition. I'm not sure where this all comes from but it is how I feel. — Roxane Gay

I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm an insomniac. I just make the time and I read and write really fast so that makes a lot possible for me. I wish I had an explanation for it. I'm grateful for it. — Roxane Gay

I would love to see more acknowledgement of how challenging it is to feel positive about fatness when you can't find clothing. When there literally is not something made for your body. Nobody ever talks about that; all those fat girl clothes swaps and stuff are for a very specific kind of fat girl. If I was Lane Bryant fat, I would be joyful about fatness. — Roxane Gay

I am mortified by my music choices. — Roxane Gay

In truth, feminism is flawed because it is a movement powered by people and people are inherently flawed. — Roxane Gay

We assume whiteness is the default because whiteness, historically, has been the default. This is one of the many reasons diverse representation matters so much. We need to change the default. — Roxane Gay

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

My tweeting is cool and calm unless I am riled up about something and then I just surrender to the fury of my fingers. — Roxane Gay

I see my tweets as a current joining a bunch of other currents in the world's craziest ocean. — Roxane Gay

Living in a rural town really compelled me to start tweeting so much. Mostly, my Twitter usage is fueled by loneliness. I can go days without talking to another human being unless it's my mother, especially when I'm not teaching or on break. — Roxane Gay

I thought a lot about how so many memoirs about fatness focus on weight loss; they don't focus on living with weight in a world that is rather inhospitable to it. So I knew that was the idea that was going to be most interesting and most challenging, and I like to be challenged as a writer. — Roxane Gay

When I'm editing my work, I'm looking for everything to fit, to feel seamless, for every detail or line of dialogue or scene to feel necessary and organic. I approach the writing of others in much the same way while always working to preserve the writer's voice. To allow myself to be vulnerable on the page, I tell myself no one is going to read my work. There's no way I could put myself out there otherwise. — Roxane Gay

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

That the question of likability even exists in literary conversations is odd. It implies that we are engaging in a courtship. When characters are unlikable, they don’t meet our mutable, varying standards. Certainly we can find kinship in fiction, but literary merit shouldn’t be dictated by whether we want to be friends or lovers with those about whom we read. — Roxane Gay

Life Lessons by Roxane Gay

1. Roxane Gay teaches us to embrace our differences and be unapologetically ourselves. She encourages us to be brave and speak up for ourselves and others, even when it is difficult. Lastly, she reminds us to be kind to ourselves and to others, and to never give up on our dreams.