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We write as if our lives depended upon it. They do.
Erica Jong -
I was surprised by my daughter's generation and how they were rebelling against the '70s idea that sex was perfect and it should be sought.
Erica Jong
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I believe I belong to the last literary generation, the last generation, that is, for whom books are a religion.
Erica Jong -
Perfectionism is the enemy of art. Since art is essentially divine play, not dogged work, it often happens that as one becomes more professionally driven one also becomes less capriciously playful.
Erica Jong -
Harriet van Horne He makes love to me expertly, mechanically, coldly... He's pressing all my buttons, as if I were a pocket calculator.
Erica Jong -
It's easier to write about pain than about joy. Joy is wordless.
Erica Jong -
Generations of women have sacrificed their lives to become their mothers. But we do not have that luxury any more. The world has changed too much to let us have the lives our mothers had. And we can no longer afford the guilt we feel at not being our mothers. We cannot afford any guilt that pulls us back to the past. We have to grow up, whether we want to or not. We have to stop blaming men and mothers and seize every second of our lives with passion. We can no longer afford to waste our creativity. We cannot afford spiritual laziness.
Erica Jong -
Surviving means being born over and over.
Erica Jong
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Murky language means someone wants to pick your pocket.
Erica Jong -
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
Erica Jong -
... what is great poetry, after all, but the continuation of the human voice after death?
Erica Jong -
it is not unusual to hate great writers before we learn to love them. Because they have created something that did not yet exist, they must also create their audience. Sometimes the audience is not yet ready. Sometimes it has yet to be born.
Erica Jong -
When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. I think it's a wonderful way to spend one's life.
Erica Jong -
As a seasoned insomniac, I knew sometimes the way to beat sleeplessness was to outwit it: to pretend you didn't care about sleeping. Then sometimes sleep became piqued, like a rejected lover, and crept up to try to seduce you.
Erica Jong
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Everyone's a little crazy when you get inside their head... it's only a matter of degree.
Erica Jong -
We all have fantasies about sex that are more perfect than anything in reality.
Erica Jong -
Photographs are the most curious indicators of reality.
Erica Jong -
There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul. Horrible as successful artists often are, there is nothing crueler or more vain than a failed artist.
Erica Jong -
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.
Erica Jong -
A poem (surely someone has said this before) is a one-night stand, a short story a love affair, and a novel a marriage.
Erica Jong
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It takes a spasm of love to write a poem.
Erica Jong -
Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?
Erica Jong -
The Lives of Great Men are more oft' at variance with their profess'd Phillosophies than consistent with 'em.
Erica Jong -
Faith is the Knowledge of the Heart, Logick the Knowledge of the Mind.
Erica Jong