Erica Jong - Quodid

About

Picture of Erica Jong

Erica Jong (née Mann; born March 26, 1942) is an American novelist, satirist, and poet known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism, selling over 37 million copies worldwide.

Quotes from Erica Jong

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. Despair is for those who expect to live forever. I no longer do.

life preciousness ephemerality despair permanence

Eating is never so simple as hunger.

hunger food eating psychology

Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. . . . It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

love cynicism risk effort fighting subversiveness

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

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

One's first love is always perfect until one meets one's second love.

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.

If you don't risk anything you risk even more.

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 sending them out.

Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of tv soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms!

I am not sure at all / if love is salve / or just / a deeper kind of wound.

A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive.

The trick is not how much pain you feel - but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.

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