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Book: Hunger
Quotes of Book: Hunger
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  1. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    He said/she said is why so many victims {or survivors, if you prefer that terminology} don't come forward. All too often, what "he said" matters more, so we just swallow the truth. We swallow it, and more often than not, that truth turns rancid. It spreads through the body like an infection. It becomes depression or addiction or obsession or some other physical manifestation of the silence of what she would have said, needed to say, couldn't say.
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  2. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    These sad stories will always weigh on me, though that burden lessens the more I realize who I am and what I am worth. 73 The thing is, though, loneliness, like losing control of my body, is a matter of accretion.
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  3. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    Part of the reason relationships and friendships can be so difficult for me is because there is a part of me that thinks I have to get things just right. I have to say the right things and do the right things or I won't be liked or loved anymore. It's stressful, so then I engage in an elaborate attempt at being the best friend or girlfriend and get further and further away from who I really am, someone with a good heart, but also someone who may not always get things right. I find myself apologizing for things I shouldn't be apologizing for, things I am not at all sorry for. I find myself apologizing for who I am. And even when I am with good, kind, loving people, I don't trust that goodness, kindness, or love. I worry that sooner or later, they will make my losing weight a condition of their continued affection. That fear makes me try harder to get things right, as if I am hedging my bets. All of this makes me very hard on myself, very driven. I just keep working and working and working and trying to be right, and I lose sight of who I am or what I want, which leaves me in a less than ideal place. It leaves me . . . nowhere. With age comes self-awareness, or something that looks like self-awareness, and so I try to be on the lookout for patterns of behavior, choices I'm making where I'm trying too hard, giving too much, reaching too intently for being right where right is what someone else wants me to be. It's scary, though, trying to be yourself and hoping yourself is enough. It's scary believing that you, as you are, could ever be enough. There is an anxiety in being yourself, though. There is the haunting question of "What if?" always lingering. What if who I am will never be enough? What if I will never be right enough for someone?
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  4. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    so she may know that she, in turn, will always be loved. It is important to show a child love in many forms, and this is the one good thing I have to offer, no matter how this child comes into my life.
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  5. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    If I must share my story, I want to do so on my terms, without the attention that inevitably follows. I do not want pity or appreciation or advice. I am not brave or heroic. I am not strong. I am not special. I am one woman who has experienced something countless women have experienced. I am a victim who survived. It could have been worse, so much worse. That's what matters and is even more a travesty here, that having this kind of story is utterly common. I hope that by sharing my story, by joining a chorus of women and men who share their stories too, more people can become appropriately horrified by how much suffering is born of sexual violence, how far-reaching the repercussions can be.
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  6. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    Being useful was a balm.
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  7. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    This is the memoir of my body. My body was broken. I was broken. I did not know how to put myself back together. I was splintered. A part of me was dead. A part of me was mute and would stay that way for many years.
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  8. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    My true loves were and still are books and writing stories and daydreaming. Sports were merely a distraction keeping me from what I really wanted to do.
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  9. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    though I didn't believe everything I learned, it was important to know such ideas, such truths, were out there.
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  10. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    I knew too much about hurt, but I didn't know how much more a girl could suffer until I did.
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  11. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    Specific body parts, "problem areas," also get labels-fupa, gunt, cankles, thunder thighs, Hi Susans, wings, cottage cheese thighs, hail damage, muffin tops, side boob, back fat, love handles, saddlebags, spare tires, double chins, gocks, man boobs, beer bellies.
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  12. Roxane Gay _ Hunger

    Revenge Body, where participants get revenge on someone who has wronged them by losing weight and getting into shape.
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