Erica Jong's Quotes
Born: 1942-03-26
Profession: Novelist
Nation: American
Biography of Erica Jong
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.
Tags: Fool, Human, WisdomPerhaps all artists were, in a sense, housewives: tenders of the earth household.
Tags: Artists, Earth, SensePoetry is what we turn to in the most emotional moments of our life - when a beloved friend dies, when a baby is born or when we fall in love.
Tags: Life, Love, PoetryWhere is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God.
Tags: Between, Brain, GodFriends 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.
Tags: Friends, Love, SuccessfulAll my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.
Tags: Living, Mother, WorkedI never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.
Tags: Getting, Money, WriterIt's hard to do fiction and nonfiction simultaneously.
Tags: Fiction, Hard, NonfictionMen have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.
Tags: Men, Truth, WomenSolitude is un-American.
Tags: SolitudeAt certain historic moments, grandparents took on childrearing responsibilities. In many cultures, they still do. Chinese grandparents who are able to retire at 55 are seen all over Beijing bouncing grandbabies. In the United States, we can't afford to retire at 55.
Tags: Able, Seen, UnitedI 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.
Tags: Life, Poetry, WritingIn 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.
Tags: Bad, Marriage, MayMy 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.
Tags: Book, School, WhySadly, 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.
Tags: Poor, Rich, WomenThe stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise.
Tags: Dead, Famous, HistoryWhen I was a ten-year old bookworm and used to kiss the dust jacket pictures of authors as if they were icons, it used to amaze me that these remote people could provoke me to love.
Tags: Kiss, Love, OldI write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing.
Tags: Book, Write, YearPoetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan.
Tags: Poetry, School, SpeakThere is still the feeling that women's writing is a lesser class of writing, that what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield, that what women know about is a less category of knowledge.
Tags: Feeling, Knowledge, WomenWhen I met my husband, I refused to invite him home for Passover because I was embarrassed my mother might serve all the catered dishes in the wrong order.
Tags: Home, Husband, MotherVisit partners pages
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You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
Tags: Smart, Woman, WomenTake your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
Tags: Blame, Happens, LifeI 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.
Tags: Change, Fear, LifeEveryone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Tags: Courage, Dark, PlaceAdvice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
Tags: Advice, Ask, WishWomen are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.
Tags: Equality, History, WomenIf you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Tags: RiskEvery country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood.
Tags: America, Church, CountryYou take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
Tags: Blame, Happens, LifeWe all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep.
Tags: Best, Human, SleepIs a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?
Tags: Remember, Used, WorthAmbivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.
Tags: Dance, Rhythm, WonderfulI have forgotten my rave reviews and memorized my vicious ones - like most writers.
Tags: Forgotten, Vicious, Writers