I cut an imposing figure. I am large, and I’m tall, and I have tattoos. I am actually really quiet and shy, but maybe people see me, and they don’t want to step out of line, or equate disagreement with stepping out of line with a writer they like. Roxane Gay Read Quote
When I was a child, my parents took my brothers and me to Port-au-Prince during the summer so we could get to know the country of our ancestors. Because Haiti is an island, the beach is everywhere. Haitians are particular, even snobby, about beaches. Roxane Gay Read Quote
If I were ever to grace the pages of ‘Vogue,’ I would want my image retouched because the audience is so vast. There is great vulnerability in being exposed to that many judging eyes. I feel no small amount of guilt over this willingness to surrender my ideals. Roxane Gay Read Quote
I want to take the time to think through how I feel and why I feel. I don’t want to feign expertise on matters I know nothing about for the purpose of offering someone else my immediate reaction for their consumption. Roxane Gay Read Quote
If a woman wants to take her husband’s name, that’s her choice, and I still think she can be feminist while doing that. Roxane Gay Read Quote
I have known beaches, but I have no particular fondness for them. I don’t like sand in my crevices. I don’t like sand at all. I don’t enjoy all that sunshine and heat without the benefit of climate control. Roxane Gay Read Quote
I keep trying to imagine a universe in which too many public figures declaring themselves feminists would be a bad thing. Roxane Gay Read Quote
Beyonce is not above critique. As a feminist herself, I hope Beyonce would welcome it. Roxane Gay Read Quote
It would be easy to assume that the open letter is a symptom of the Internet age. Such is not the case. In 1774, Benjamin Franklin wrote an open letter to the prime minister of Great Britain, Lord North – a satirical call for the imposition of martial law in the colonies. Roxane Gay Read Quote
