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You are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner. Shakespeare wrote without knowing he would become Shakespeare
Erica Jong -
I think feminism means what it has always meant - women want to use all their gifts, all their talents and be judged impartially for them. I don't think feminism has ever meant anything else.
Erica Jong
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Every time I catch myself saying, "Oh no, you shouldn't try that," I think, "Yes, I should."
Erica Jong -
Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture . . . Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.
Erica Jong -
Pregnancy seemed like a tremendous abdication of control. Something growing inside you which would eventually usurp your life.
Erica Jong -
You must find the right voice (or voices) for the timbre that can convince a reader to give himself up to you.
Erica Jong -
Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood.
Erica Jong -
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.
Erica Jong
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Most sex is not really intimate.
Erica Jong -
Genius is a strong aphrodisiac.
Erica Jong -
Isn't that the problem? That women have been swindled for centuries into substituting adornment for love, fashion for passion?
Erica Jong -
If you apologize for something that isn't your fault in the first place, you, in effect, confirm their belief that it is your fault.
Erica Jong -
Language matters because whoever controls the words controls the conversation, because whoever controls the conversation controls its outcome, because whoever frames the debate has already won it, because telling the truth has become harder and harder to achieve in an America drowning in Orwellian Newspeak.
Erica Jong -
As long as I'm facing the right direction, it doesn't matter the size of my steps.
Erica Jong
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Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It's really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.
Erica Jong -
I have accepted fear as a part of life - specifically the fear of change... I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.
Erica Jong -
Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.
Erica Jong -
I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper.
Erica Jong -
In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving -instead of actually getting up and leaving.
Erica Jong -
What all the ads and whorescopes seemed to imply was that if only you took proper care of your smells, your hair, your boobs, your eyelashes, your armpits, your crotch, your stars, your scars, your choice of Scotch in bars - you would meet a beautiful powerful, potent, and rich man who would satisfy every longing, fill every hole, make your heart skip a beat (or stand still), make you misty, and fly you to the moon (preferably on gossamer wings), where you would live totally satisfied forever.
Erica Jong
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Sex is God's joke on the human race ... if we didn't have sex to make us ridiculous, She would have had to think up something else instead.
Erica Jong -
We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.
Erica Jong -
The hardest part is believing in yourself at the notebook stage. It is like believing in dreams in the morning.
Erica Jong -
I think poetry is the best thing I do. It's certainly the purest. I seem to switch gears without too much trouble. Non-fiction is in many ways the easiest to write.
Erica Jong