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Quote by Roxane Gay

“Like many writers, I lived inside of books as a child.”

Work

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Bad Feminist is a compilation of personal essays that delve into the nuances of feminism and its intersection with everyday life. The book addresses topics such as race, gender, and the media, offering a candid and often humorous look at the author's own experiences and the broader issues affecting women today. more

Author

Roxane Gay

Roxane Gay is an American writer born in 1974. Her works include novels, non-fiction, short stories, and essays. Her notable works are 'Bad Feminist' and 'Hunger'. Her writing style is characterized by humor, honesty, and profound self-reflection. more

“Would've been useful when I was about eight," I said. "I used to have wicked nightmares." I did, too: stupid dreams about being chased by Elmo. A psycho Elmo with eyes like that Chucky doll. I'd wake up screaming and Vicky would come running in and ask what the nightmare was about. I never told her. I was too embarrassed.”

Dream Parent Childhood Young Adult Wicked Nightmare Creepy Psycho Spooky Kid Stalker Sesame Street Doll Puppet Elmo Embarrassing Moment Chucky Gives Me The Willies

Book:The World Without Us

Source: The World Without Us

“I glanced in the first open door and stopped short. Desks. Four tiny desks. A wall of faded posters of alphabet animals. A blackboard, still showing the ghost of numbers. I blinked, certain I was seeing wrong. Derek nudged my legs, telling me to get moving. I looked at him, and I looked at the classroom. This was where Derek had grown up. Four tiny desks. Four little boys. Four young werewolves. For a second, I could see them—three boys working at the three clustered desks, Derek alone at the fourth, pushed slightly away, hunched over his work, trying to ignore the others. Derek nudged me again, whining softly, and I looked down to see him eyeing the room, every hair on his neck on end, anxious to get away from this place.”

Childhood Werewolves Chloe Derek Lab Bad Memory

Book:The Reckoning

Source: The Reckoning

“I still can remember some of the poems and proverbs, I learnt in my childhood.”

Learning Childhood Poems

Author:Laillah Gifty Akita

“This is part of the answer to the riddle of childhood unhappiness: their minds need, and deserve, a whole world of utterly unfenceable freedom where everything has othering, everything is radiant with the possibilities of elseness.”

Thinking Education Childhood Educational Philosophy

Author:Jay Griffeths

“You can't go home again. Your childhood is lost. The friends of your youth are gone. Your present is slipping away from you. Nothing is ever the same.”

Philosophy Childhood Heraclitus

Book:The fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on nature; translated from the Greek text of Bywater, with an introd. historical and critical

Source: The fragments of the work of Heraclitus of Ephesus on nature; translated from the Greek text of Bywater, with an introd. historical and critical

“Being in love means being at the mercy of someone's childhood.”

Love Childhood

Author:Hanif Kureishi

“The Luidaeg sighed and put her arms around me, pulling me close. "Come here," she said. "I need to hold someone, and you need to be held. It's a fair trade. Just for a little while, and then we can go on being what we are." I thought about objecting, but dismissed the idea and nestled against her, enjoying the feeling of security given by knowing someone bigger and stronger than I was would stop anything from hurting me. That's all childhood is, after all: strong arms to hold back the dark, a story to keep the shadows dancing, and a candle to mark the long journey into day. A song to keep the flights of angels at bay. How many miles to Babylon? Sorry. I don't care.”

Childhood Security Fears

Author:Seanan McGuire

“A well-known psychologist once said, 'When a child reaches his third birthday, his parents will have given him half of all that they will ever be able to give him in the way of education.”

Children Parent Education Psychology Childhood Development Parenting Child

Book:Father Ten Boom, God's Man

Source: Father Ten Boom, God's Man

“Here is the voice of my main Character in my Talon book series, I’ll let her introduce herself to you: My name is Matica and I am a special needs child with a growth disability. I am stuck in the body of a two year old, even though I am ten years old when my story begins in the first book of the Talon series, TALON, COME FLY WITH ME. Because of that disability, (I am saying ‘that’ disability, not ‘my’ disability because it’s a thing that happens to me, nothing more and because I am not accepting it as something bad. I can say that now after I learned to cope with it.) I was rejected by the local Indians as they couldn’t understand that that condition is not a sickness and so it can’t be really cured. It’s just a disorder of my body. But I never gave up on life and so I had lots of adventures roaming around the plateau where we live in Peru, South America, with my mother’s blessings. But after I made friends with my condors I named Tamo and Tima, everything changed. It changed for the good. I was finally loved. And I am the hero and I embrace my problem. In better words: I had embraced my problem before I made friends with my condors Tamo and Tima. I held onto it and I felt sorry for myself and cried a lot, wanting to run away or something worse. But did it help me? Did it become better? Did I grow taller? No, nothing of that helped me. I didn’t have those questions when I was still in my sorrow, but all these questions came to me later, after I was loved and was cherished. One day I looked up into the sky and saw the majestic condors flying in the air. Here and now, I made up my mind. I wanted to become friends with them. I believed if I could achieve that, all my sorrow and rejection would be over. And true enough, it was over. I was loved. I even became famous. And so, if you are in a situation, with whatever your problem is, find something you could rely on and stick to it, love that and do with that what you were meant to do. And I never run from conflicts.”