A man has never told me he likes me. Like is more interesting than love.
I knew I was in love with The Hunger Games when I did not want to get off the treadmill
Love your friends’ kids even if you don’t want or like children. Just do it.
We hold all people to unspoken rules about who and how they should be, how they should think, and what the should say. We say we hate stereotypes but take issue when people deviate from those stereotypes.
Many comedians are very proud of themselves for saying the things others are supposedly afraid to say. They are at the forefront of this culture of entitlement where we get to do anything, think anything, and say anything.
I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.
… just one more reminder that the rules are always different for girls, no matter who they are and no matter what they do.
This tension-the idea that there is a right way to be a woman, a right way to be the most essential woman- is ongoing and pervasive.
Despite what people think based on my opinion writing, I very much like men. They’re interesting to me, and I mostly wish they would be better about how they treat women so I wouldn’t have to call them out so often.
Like many writers, I lived inside of books as a child.
Some experiences are universal. A girl is a girl whether she lives in West Omaha or Sweet Valley. Books are often far more than books.
She didn’t care if he was telling the truth. Milly felt nothing but she was very good at making men think otherwise. Sometimes, she nearly convinced herself.
I often tell my students that fiction is about desire in one way or another. The older I get, the more I understand that life is generally the pursuit of desires. We want and want and oh how we want. We hunger.
I get angry when women disavow feminism and shun the feminist label but say they support all the advances born of feminism because I see a disconnect that does not need to be there.
I want characters to do bad things and get away with their misdeeds. I want characters to think ugly thoughts and make ugly decisions. I want characters to make mistakes and put themselves first without apologizing for it.
I hear many young women say they can’t find well-known feminists with whom they identify. That can be disheartening, but I say, let us (try to) become the feminists we would like to see moving through the world.
I very much like men. They’re interesting to me, and I mostly wish they would be better about how they treat women so I wouldn’t have to call them out so often.
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 no longer want to believe these problems are too complex for us to make sense of them.
This is where we should start focusing this conversation: how men (as readers, critics, and editors) can start to bear the responsibility for becoming better, broader readers.
We are now dealing with a bizarre new morality where a woman cannot simply say, in one way or another, “I’m on the pill because I like dick.
When you can’t find someone to follow, find a way to lead by example.
Better is not good enough, and it’s a shame that anyone would be willing to settle for so little.
On the scale of relevance, public approval or disapproval of a woman’s choices should not merit measure.
On my more difficult days, I’m not sure what’s more of a pain in my ass — being black or being a woman. I’m happy to be both of these things, but the world keeps intervening.
If people cannot be flawed in fiction there’s no place left for us to be human.
The ladies in her classes loved to speak to Caridad in broken Spanish, to show her they were comfortable with her ethnicity despite the paleness of their skin and the wealth of their husbands.
Nostalgia is powerful. It is natural, human to long for the past, particularly when we can remember our histories as better than they were.
For a moment, Milly couldn’t breathe as her anger flew out of her chest and into her mouth. She ran her tongue over it, hard and bitter, then swallowed it again.
To read narrowly and shallowly is to read from a place of ignorance.
Racism doesn’t care about respectability, wealth, education, or status
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.
I am quite content to be in my thirties, and nothing affirms that more than being around people in their late teens and early twenties.
I don’t put that pressure on myself (to write every day), but I do tend to write every day. It’s not pressure—it’s pressure release.
The notion that I should be fine with the status quo even if I am not wholly affected by the status quo is repulsive.
Human endurance fascinates me, probably too much because more often than not, I think of life in terms of enduring instead of living.
I’m tired of feeling like I should be grateful when popular culture deigns to acknowledge the experiences of people who are not white, middle class or wealthy, and heterosexual.
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.
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.
I love, but I am not entirely sure how to be loved: how to be seen and known for the utterly flawed woman I am. It demands surrender. It demands acknowledging that I am not perfect, but perhaps I deserve affection anyway.
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.
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.
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.
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.