You are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner.
ERICA JONGYou are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner.
ERICA JONGDriving me away is easier than saying goodbye.
ERICA JONGI myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself.
ERICA JONGLife has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it.
ERICA JONGAs women got little crumbs of power, men began to act paranoid – as if we’d disabled them utterly.
ERICA JONGThough my friends envied me because I always seemed so cheerful and confident, I was secretly terrified of practically everything.
ERICA JONGFame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.
ERICA JONGWhat I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not exhortation.
ERICA JONGTo name oneself is the first act of both the poet and the revolutionary.
ERICA JONGLove is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
ERICA JONGPeople always think that history proceeds in a straight line. It doesn’t. Social attitudes don’t change in a straight line.
ERICA JONGFear is a sign-usually a sign that I’m doing something right.
ERICA JONGThe dilemma is that if one does not risk anything one risks even more.
ERICA JONGThe words carry their own momentum. A confession in motion tends to stay in motion. Newton’s first law of jealousy.
ERICA JONGI have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.
ERICA JONGI stand in the mist and cry, thinking of myself standing in the mist and crying, and wondering if I will ever be able to use this experience in a book.
ERICA JONG