Skip to content

Firsts Quote by 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.” quote by Roxane Gay — Download Open image

“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.”

About This Quote

Source Book: Hunger: A Memoir, Roxane Gay, 2017

Writing serves personal expression and amplifies marginalized voices.

In simple terms: She writes for self and unheard women.

Key Takeaway

Write authentically, uplift others.

Themes

feminism voice authenticity

Mood

empathetic empowering

Type

social personal

When to use this quote

personal journaling
advocacy writing
community workshops

Key Concepts

intersectionality representation

Questions to Reflect On

Whose stories need more platform?
How does personal narrative empower others?

A Different Perspective

May alienate readers who feel excluded.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ 3.5 out of 5 (4 ratings)

Firsts Foremost Write Heard People Want Women Just Write Write Foremost Write People Writer Writing

More by Roxane Gay

“Human endurance fascinates me, probably too much because more often than not, I think of life in terms of enduring instead of living.”

Image

“Being useful was a balm.”

Image

No woman or man is any one thing and the men in my stories, well, some of them are good and some of them…

Image

“I was a daydreamer and I resented being pulled out of my daydreams to deal with the business of living.”

Image

Feminism is, I hope, a way to a better future for everyone who inhabits this world. Feminism should not be something that needs a…

Image

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

Image

“I've noticed while cooking, how ingredients in their individual and naked state and be a bit repulsive but necessary, kind of like people.”

Image

“I shouted, “This is not right,” knowing my words were useless. There’s no room for such distinctions in a country where too many people…

Image

Most of my favorite tweets go completely ignored but most of my favorite tweets are probably really lame or inside jokes between me and…

Image

“What about other women of color? For Hispanic and Latina women, Indian women, Middle Eastern women, Asian women, their absence in popular culture is…

Image

There has been, and there will continue to be, vigorous discussions about race in America. I worry that little will come of these discussions…

Image

Writing, at its best and truest, can offer solace and salvation for both readers and writers.

Image

Explore all 503 Roxane Gay quotes

More Firsts quotes

I always say there are two things to be successful. The first is decide exactly what you want - set your goals - and…

Image

My first ever job after college was as a flight attendant. I wanted to travel and could not afford it, so I decided to…

Jacqueline Winspear

Image

Since I worked with Danny Boyle before on Slumdog Millionaire, we have great success and everything. So, when I first got the script and…

Image

You sort of can't talk about the post production unless you talk about what comes first.

Paul Greengrass

Image

I'm a business first and foremost so whatever my business is, it's separate from my personal. It's like whatever I do business wise, it's…

Image

A man walks down the street. It's a street in a strange world. Maybe it's the third world. Maybe it's his first time around.…

Image

I did not know that the planning for biological and chemical warfare was so widespread in England, and even in France before France fell.…

Nicholson Baker

Image

The biggest change for me as a mom was realizing I needed to put someone else before me. Now the hardest part about the…

Image

When I first started, my message was about joy, but I didn't really have the vocabulary and life experience to fully deliver it.

Image

I'm very used to working with first time actors - you can just look back at 'E.T.' with Drew Barrymore, and Christian Bale from…

Steven Spielberg

Image

I have lifted my plane . . . for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth…

Image

We need a system that serves our needs, not the needs of others. Remember, under a Trump administration it's called America first. Remember that.

Image

Browse all 32,432 Firsts quotes