Quotes on Fat

Writing for me is cutting out the fat and getting to the meaning.

Fat people are so rarely included in visual culture that fat is perceived as a blot on the landscape of sleek and slim.

I like books that are fat and full.

Rich cultures, patriarchal cultures, value thin women, like ours; poor ones value fat women. But all patriarchal cultures value weak women. So for women to become physically strong is very profound.

I've been fat since I was seven, and being fat sets you apart.

I dreamed: I am the fish whose flesh is eaten, and because I am fat, it is good.

I have fallen in love with American names, the sharp names that never get fat.

Size matters in fiction, but so does lack of size. Everything else being equal, fat novels tend to be perceived as serious, very thin ones as more honest, more real. Writers address these age-old expectations by filling their big books with philosophy and cramming their little ones with feeling.

Who would have thought that the girl who was forced to go to the hospital because she's so skinny would one day be called too fat?

Of course there is no denying the possible pleasure of holing up with a fat, slow-moving, mediocre novel; still, we all know that we can indulge ourselves in that fashion only so much. In the end, we read not for reading's sake, but to learn.

My fat never made me less money.

The food we eat goes beyond its macronutrients of carbohydrates, fat and protein. It's information. It interacts with and instructs our genome with every mouthful, changing genetic expression.

Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.

So instead of beating myself up for being fat, I think it's a miracle that I laugh every day and walk through my life with pride, because our culture is unrelenting when it comes to large people.