Erica Jong Quotes
-
In freeing myself from the romantic dream of finding another man to come along and rescue me, I learned that no one can rescue me except myself.
-
Isn't it our job to be appalled by our parents? Isn't it every generation's duty to be dismayed by the previous generation? And to assert that we are different - only to discover later that we are distressingly the same?
-
Art is always an energy exchange.
-
A Soul is partly given, partly wrought; remember always that you are the Maker of your own Soul.
-
I am never so calm as after I have written. And the next morning I will feel the familiar anxiety and I will have to begin the process all over again.
-
I think we’re men and women more similar. In that we all deal with our fantasy lives and sometimes are disappointed by reality.
-
We find our calling or it finds us, and it's a sin against the fates not to use your talent when you have it.
-
I didn't believe in systems. Everything human was imperfect and ultimately absurd. What did I believe in then? In humor. In laughing at systems, at people, at one's self. In laughing even at one's need to laugh all the time. In seeing life as contradictory, many-sided, various, funny, tragic, and with moments of outrageous beauty. In seeing life as a fruitcake, including delicious plums and bad peanuts, but meant to be devoured hungrily all the same because you couldn't feast on the plums without also sometimes being poisoned by the peanuts.
-
If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs.
-
Motherhood cannot finally be delegated. Breast-feeding may succumb to the bottle; cuddling, fondling, and paediatric visits may also be done by fathers...but when a child needs a mother to talk to, nobody else but a mother will do.
-
It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write.
-
We write poems as leaves give oxygen - so we can breathe.
-
To name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary.
-
You reach a point in life where you realize that you might as well do what you need to do, because your being loved or not being loved is really a function of the people you encounter and not of yourself. That is an immensely liberating insight.
-
Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world.
-
Solitude is un-American.
-
You're not too fat; you're just in the wrong country.
-
The Passion that one Soul hath for God cannot be judged by another.
-
I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.
-
Really true intimacy is rare and it depends on other things besides sex.
-
Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women.
-
Men must be stripped of arrogance and women must become independent for any mutually nurturing alliance to endure between the sexes.
-
Having stopped expecting truth, we rarely get it.
-
It was easy enough to kill yourself in a fit of despair. It was easy enough to play the martyr. It was harder to do nothing. To endure your life. To wait.