“Beauty is a dangerous word. Beauty becomes slightly indulgent for me. It's a snatched kind of moment for me because I'm entitled to a nice day in my life but beauty creeps close to narcissism, which I really dislike, particularly in human beings who were born with good looks, who cash in on it. It's a bit of a dodgy word for me. I look at it with caution. It can be a bit like walking into quicksand; it can get you in to all kinds of trouble.” KindMomentsNiceTroubleDangerousWalkingAll KindsDislikeNarcissismLooking GoodCautionNice DayQuicksand Author:Don McCullin
“Anything that is going to be good for sex workers is going to be good for women across the board. Less women in jail is going to be good for all of us.” Be Good Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Say you're a sex worker and your partner knows you're a sex worker, but you're not out to your family. That could be very dangerous, particularly in an unhealthy relationship, where it could be a recipe for conflict, for something potentially violent that could lead to someone going to jail. There's so much pressure because of the criminalization and stigma. If we lifted that, it's only going to benefit more women.” DangerousConflictViolentOur FamilyStigma Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“I don't use "feelings" as a diminutive word. I'm trying to take feelings back. I think of everyone on the internet whose response to everything is: "#Feelings! This is important, this is real, this is significant!" That connects to power, too. Wanting to feel like you have power and control over your life.” ThinkingTryingImportantRealFeelingsLike YouInternetResponseSignificantOver You Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“In the current situation with criminalization, we've created situations where sex workers have very little power and control over their lives. Increasing one group of women's power and control over their lives does not take anything away from other women. When a woman's value has been constructed as keeping a man and keeping him faithful, then when he's not we've been taught to internalize that there's something wrong with us.” MenValuesSituationFaithful Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“It doesn't service anyone any to say, "This is a terrible violation in any circumstance always," because that robs us of our ability to write our own lives. I've had people cheat on me and it's been devastating, and I've had people cheat on me and felt that it showed their true colors.” PeopleWritingAbilityCircumstancesTerribleCheat Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“I've always been a writer. I started getting paid for writing in college. Where it transitioned from commentary to journalism was in that shift - not wanting to write personal stories because people are hungry in not necessarily great ways for the sexy, sexy, sex work story. I was trying to shift the focus, and journalism was the tool I needed to write about people outside my own life and range of experience.” PeopleWritingTryingFocusCollegeSexyHungryJournalism Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Do not look down upon any Muslim, for even the most inferior believer is great in the eyes of God.” LooksEyeHumanityBelieverInferiorsCaliphs Author:Abu Bakr
“Almost everything I've learned about journalism has been from other friends who are journalists, taking advantage of the money I hope they don't think they threw away at j-school. I studied comparative literature, but the professional vagaries of journalism I've learned through other people's trial and error, and my own.” ThinkingLiteratureJournalismJournalistTaking Advantage Author:Melissa Gira Grant
“Another sex worker and writer I respect put it this way: she said that as a writer, you're not about pleasing people, and as a sex worker it's all about pleasing people. It's all about creating this fantasy. I still feel like as a writer you actually do have put on a show. You can't just hand over your notes. And there is a degree to which you are appealing to the reader's vanity, whether you tell yourself you're doing that or not.” PeopleFantasyOver You Author:Melissa Gira Grant