Authors:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Erica Jong Quotes - Page 16

All Quotes Age Art Atheist Being Strong Birth Blame Censorship Children Country Courage Creativity Culture Divorce Dying Earth Eating Fame Fear Feelings Feminism Fighting Flying Funny Getting Older Giving Gossip Guilt Hate Heart Home House Hunger Hurt Husband Identity Inspirational Joy Language Life Literature Loss Love Magic Marriage Memories Morning Motherhood Pain Passion Past Reading Reality Responsibility Risk School Sexuality Silence Sleep Solitude Soul Survival Talent Teaching Waiting War Writing

Nothing you write is ever lost to you. At some other level your mind is working on it.

Nothing you write is ever lost to you. At some other level your mind is working on it.

Writing, Mind, Levels

Charlotte Templin, Erica Jong (2002). “Conversations with Erica Jong”, p.11, Univ. Press of Mississippi

The bruise on the heart which at first feels incredibly tender to the slightest touch eventually turns all the shades of the rainbow and stops aching. We forget about it. We even forget we have hearts until the next time. And then we wonder how we ever could have forgotten. We think this one is better, because, in fact, we cannot fully remember the time before.

Heart, Thinking, Rainbow

erica jong “fear of flying”

You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough.

Maturity, Years, Sixteen

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.

Believe, Self, Laughing

Beware of the man who praises women's liberation; he is about to quit his job.

Jobs, Work, Women

I had been a feminist all my life, but the big problem was how to make your feminism jibe with you unappeasable hunger for male bodies.

Feminist, Feminism, Males

Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.

Love, Beauty, Apology

1977 How To SaveYour Own Life.

Surviving means being born over and over.

Life, Mean, Born

My generation had Doris Day as a role model, then Gloria Steinem--then Princess Diana. We are the most confused generation.

Confused, Princess, Role Models

we write as if our lives depended upon it. They do.

Writing, Our Lives, Ifs

Erica Jong (2007). “What Do Women Want?: Essays by Erica Jong”, p.155, Penguin

tis true that tho' People can transcend their Characters in Times of Tranquillity, they can ne'er do so in Times of Tumult.

Character, People, Tranquillity

Erica Jong (1981). “Fanny”

Famous people complain about fame, but they never want to give it back, myself included.

People, Giving, Complaining

Erica Jong (2007). “Seducing the Demon: Writing for My Life”, p.164, Penguin

I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you cannot protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so.

Children, Government, Self

I have ne'er been in a chamber with a lawyer when I did not wish either to scream with desperation or else fall into the deepest of sleeps, e'en when the matter concern'd my own future most profoundly.

Fall, Sleep, Wish

Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry.

Loneliness, Birth

"Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected". Book by Erica Jong, 1991.

I have enormous pride in the survival of the Jewish people, the cultural heritage of the Jewish people, but I'm not observant, and I don't belong to a synagogue. I don't go to temple on high holy days, but I'm proud to be Jewish.

Pride, Holy Days, People

Interview with Whitney Joiner, logger.believermag.com. October 17, 2013.

I think the Jews are an amazing group of people and their survival is amazing.

Thinking, People, Survival

Interview with Whitney Joiner, logger.believermag.com. October 17, 2013.

The absolute bedrock of our independence is having control over our own bodies. You cannot be independent if the government or someone else says whether or not you can use birth control. Unless you're in charge of your body, you're not in charge of anything. I think that's really the bottom line of feminism.

Independent, Thinking, Government

"Erica Jong on Feminism for the Future". Omega Institute Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 13, 2014.

Not everybody has to be a parent. In fact, in an overpopulated world where our resources are shrinking, it would be wonderful if people who didn't want children felt free to say so. In the 1970s, there was more tolerance for the idea that not everybody needs to be a biological parent.

Children, Ideas, People

"Erica Jong on Feminism for the Future". Omega Institute Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 13, 2014.

I think men have always been afraid of women's sexuality, and the restrictions they put on women testify to that.

Men, Thinking, Sexuality

That was probably the mistake of my generation, that we thought that having sex with anyone would be intimate and it wasn't.

Sex, Mistake, Would Be

"Getting Intimate with Erica Jong". Interview with Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 1, 2011.

I prefer to work in the morning. I get up now at five in the morning. In the morning is when I feel freshest.

Morning, Get Up, Feels

Interview with Whitney Joiner, logger.believermag.com. October 17, 2013.

I've become more conservative about sex as I've gotten older.

Sex, Conservative

"Getting Intimate with Erica Jong". Interview with Royal Young, www.interviewmagazine.com. June 1, 2011.

You have to enjoy being a woman. Why should being a woman be such a negative thing where you always have to improve yourself? I have never in my entire life met a man who didn't want to go to bed with me because I was too fat.

Men, Want, Bed

Interview with Whitney Joiner, logger.believermag.com. October 17, 2013.

Feminism is really the right of women to be full human beings and to not be defined only by their childbearing function. Feminism is really the right of women to be human beings. That's it, yet that's so frightening to a lot of people. A full human being wants satisfying work and love. A full human being is entitled to both, and is not simply defined by only one aspect of her being.

People, Feminism, Want

"Erica Jong on Feminism for the Future". Omega Institute Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 13, 2014.

You May Also Like: