Quotes by Erica Jong

“The virtues about marriage were mostly negative virtues. Being unmarried in a man's world was such a hassle that anything had to be better. Marriage was better. But not much. Damned clever, I thoug...”

“We're programmed for suffering, not joy. The masochism is built in at a very early age. You're supposed to work and suffer - and the trouble is: you believe it.”

“It's only when you're forbidden to talk about the future that you suddenly realize how much the future normally occupies the present, how much of daily life is usually spent making plans and attemp...”

“Tears are a form of communication - like speech - and require a listener.”

“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.”

“There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but having no outlet, it implodes in a great fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul.”

“There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul.”

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”

“Because When you write about people, you inevitably offend--but if you write about animals, the evil do not recognize themselves but the good understand immediately.”

“Without the gods, how would I sing?' I asked.With your own voice,' he said.”

“But if the gods do not exist at all - then we are lost,' I said.On the contrary - we are found!' said Aesop.But when we are afraid, who can we turn to, if not the gods?'Ourselves. We turn to oursel...”

“In a certain sense, you do write to seduce the world, but when it happens, you begin to feel like a whore. The disparity between your life and your work turns out to be as great as ever. And the pe...”

“There's nothing good about being ordinary. People don't respect you for it. People run after people who are different, who have confidence in their own taste, who don't run with the herd. There is ...”

“I have not ceased being fearful but I have ceased to let fear control me.”

“I went for years not finishing anything. Because of course when you finish something you can be judged.... I had poems which were rewritten so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sen...”

“If every day I dare to remember that I am here on loan that this house this hillside these minutes are all leased to me not given I will never despair.”

“I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.”

“And the trouble is if you don't risk anything you risk even more.”

“Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.”

“I was afraid to write Fear of Flying ergo I had to write it. I have lived my life according to this principle: If I'm afraid of it then I must do it.”