The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past.
ERICA JONGWhat I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not exhortation.
More Erica Jong Quotes
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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.
ERICA JONG -
Really true intimacy is rare and it depends on other things besides sex.
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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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There is no loneliness like the loneliness of a dead marriage.
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Friends love misery… our misery is what endears us to our friends.
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What I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not by exhortation.
ERICA JONG -
Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
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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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If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs.
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As long as I’m facing the right direction, it doesn’t matter the size of my steps.
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I don’t think you will ever fully understand how you’ve touched my life and made me who I am.
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And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.
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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.
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My mother wanted me to be her wings, to fly as she never quite had the courage to do. I love her for that. I love the fact that she wanted to give birth to her own wings.
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Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar.
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Art is always an energy exchange.
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Betrayal betrays the betrayer.
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It’s easier to write about pain than about joy. Joy is wordless.
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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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Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
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Our empathy for others as an excuse to underpay us.
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Every time we hit an air pocket and the plane dropped about five hundred feet (leaving my stomach in my mouth)
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Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
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I 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.
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How could one create life with someone who represented death?
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A new dog never replaces an old dog, it merely expands the heart.
ERICA JONG