I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading.
ERICA JONGPerhaps all artists were, in a sense, housewives: tenders of the earth household.
More Erica Jong Quotes
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Anger is really disappointed hope.
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Courage is the only Magic worth having.
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If we are all made of God, it is our friends who remind us. We pass the gift of God to them. They pass it back to us when we need it most.
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Motherhood cannot finally be delegated.
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We were not human beings going through spiritual experiences; we were spiritual beings going through human experiences, in order to grow.
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To name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary.
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Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartednes s that requires the true courage — however often we are hurt as a result of it.
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I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself.
ERICA JONG -
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
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People are interested in their own sexuality and they’ve always reflected it in their art. End of story.
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Every time I catch myself saying, “Oh no, you shouldn’t try that,” I think, “Yes, I should.”
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The truth is simple, you do not die from love. You only wish you did.
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Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember?
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Why does life need evidence of life?
ERICA JONG -
How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one’s nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.
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Creativity demands nothing less than all you have. Talent alone is never enough.
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Though my friends envied me because I always seemed so cheerful and confident, I was secretly terrified of practically everything.
ERICA JONG -
Images are … a kind of emotional shorthand.
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If sex and creativity are often seen by dictators as subversive activities, it’s because they lead to the knowledge that you own your own body (and with it your own voice), and that’s the most revolutionary insight of all.
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Narrative- and image-making creatures like humans don’t feel any experience is complete unless it’s recorded.
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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.
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People always think that history proceeds in a straight line. It doesn’t. Social attitudes don’t change in a straight line.
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Silence is the bluntest of blunt instruments.
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Freedom is a loose leash, license to be different from your mother and still be loved…Freedom is…not insisting that your daughter share your limitations. Freedom also means letting your daughter reject you when she needs to and come back when she needs to. Freedom is unconditional love.
ERICA JONG -
My reaction to porno films is as follows: After the first ten minutes, I want to go home and screw. After the first twenty minutes, I never want to screw again as long as I live.
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Loving someone is a loss of freedom – but one doesn’t think of it as loss because one gains so much else.
ERICA JONG