Erica Jong Quotes
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In a world not made for women, criticism and ridicule follow us all the days of our lives. Usually they are indications that we are doing something right.
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The dilemma is that if one does not risk anything one risks even more.
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I prefer to work in the morning. I get up now at five in the morning. In the morning is when I feel freshest.
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Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments.
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No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
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If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair.
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Memory is the crux of our humanity. Without memory we have no identities. That is really why I am committing an autobiography.
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We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.
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I think the Jews are an amazing group of people and their survival is amazing.
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It's easier to write about pain than about joy. Joy is wordless.
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Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
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I think a lot of people, when they read about a woman who acknowledges her sexuality and her feelings, get really scared. They say they want to be fearless, but in reality they're terrified. If they acknowledge their deepest feelings, they might have to change their lives.
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It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.
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Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.
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Henry Miller was such a scribomaniac that even when he lived in the same house as Lawrence Durrell they often exchanged letters. For most of his life, Henry wrote literally dozens of letters a day to people he could have easily engaged in conversation - and did. The writing process, in short, was essential. As it is to all real writers, writing was life and breath to him. He put out words as a tree puts out leaves.
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What are the sources of poetry? Love and death and the paradox of love and death. All poetry from the beginning is about Eros and Thanatos. Those are the only subjects. And how Eros and Thanatos interweave.
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Creativity demands nothing less than all you have. Talent alone is never enough.
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I am against censorship. I prefer the chaos of uncontrollable communication of all sorts to selective banning of certain materials. I do not think human beings can be trusted to be above politics and to promote the common good. One group's common good is another group's evil.
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Every time I catch myself saying, "Oh no, you shouldn't try that," I think, "Yes, I should."
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A poem (surely someone has said this before) is a one-night stand, a short story a love affair, and a novel a marriage.
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I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading.
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There were 117 psychoanalysts on the Pan Am flight to Vienna and I'd been treated by at least six of them. And married a seventh.
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Driving me away is easier than saying goodbye.
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Anger is really disappointed hope.