602 Quotes by Roxane Gay

There is no collective slavery revenge fantasy among black people, but I am certain, if there were one, it would not be about white people, not at all.

We are all free to be assholes, but we are not free to do so without consequence.

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

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.

I lost my voice, but I had words.

I am determined to be more than my body—what my body has endured, what my body has become. Determination, though, has not gotten me very far.

We all have the capacity to do hurtful things, but we differ from one another in terms of scale-how much we can hurt others, how far we will go to make a statement about our beliefs, how remorseful we might feel in the aftermath of committing a terrible act.

One of my biggest weaknesses, one that has always shamed me, is that I have always been lonely. I've struggled to make friends because I can be socially awkward, because I'm weird, because I live in my head.

I try to learn better, do better. I have no idea how I got to be the one at the front of the classroom, the one who gets to be in charge of things. Most of the time, I feel like the kid who gets to sit at the adult table for the first time at Thanksgiving. I'm not sure which fork to use. My feet can't reach the floor.