In truth, feminism is flawed because it is a movement powered by people and people are inherently flawed."
-- Roxane Gay (Introduction paragraph 5)

Importance: This quote is important because it introduces, within the book's first two pages, the idea that feminism is not a perfect movement. This fact is what helps Gay embrace the label of "Bad Feminist" and encourages readers not to disavow the movement entirely due to its limitations. Gay wants reader to stop expecting feminism to be all things to all people, since that is impossible and is only setting the movement up for failure.

She was gossiping about me to a group of our classmates and said I was the affirmative-action student.
-- Unnamed colleague of Roxanne's in graduate school (Feel Me. See Me. Hear Me. Reach Me. paragraph 23)

Importance: This quote demonstrates some of the challenges Gay has had to face as a black woman in academia. As the only person of color in her graduate program, Gay feels disconnected from her classmates who can't possibly understand how hurtful...