Erica Jong Quotes

Author

Erica Jong is a renowned American author, born on March 26, 1942. Her works, focusing on female perspectives and sexual liberation, have gained widespread popularity. Her representative works include 'How to Be a Woman'.

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All Writing Ifs Thinking People Men Sex World Knows Feels Needs Want Way Book Women Believe Humans Mother Inspirational Feminism Firsts

Famous Erica Jong Quotes

“It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write.”

Thinking Knows Writing Parting

Book:Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

Source: Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

“Never follow a dog act. You know you're on the skids when you play yourself in the movie version of your life.”

Knows Play Dog Versions

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“It's useful to know how much society's holding you back. My mother would talk about how she was told by the head of her art school that she was the best painter, but that she wouldn't get the biggest prize because she would waste her talent by having children. I think we have to get honest with girls about how they can expect the world to block them, and we have to prepare girls, and ourselves, to break through those blocks.”

Thinking Knows World Children Art School Mother Girl Break Know How Honest Talent Waste Block Painter Prize Break Through Art School Having Children

Author:Erica Jong

“Don't ye know that ev'ry Soul on Earth feels itself to be an Orphan?”

Knows Feels Soul Earth Orphan

Book:Fanny

Source: Fanny

“All authors know that any book is a casting of runes, a reading of cards, a map of the palm and heart. We make up the ocean - then fall in. But we also write the life raft.”

Knows Writing Heart Book Fall Reading Ocean Cards Maps Palms Casting Runes

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“When everyone thinks they know you, it's hard not to be guarded.”

Thinking Knows Hard Guarded

Author:Erica Jong

“My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher." - Socrates (470-399 B.C.) "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't”

Ifs Knows Asks Wish Answers Wife Advice Married Philosopher Good Wife

Author:Erica Jong

“I'm not classically pretty; I've always been too heavy; I've had thyroid disease and it's very hard for me to lose weight - but I've always had men pursue me. I've always had that 'it' thing. God knows why. Maybe it's pheromones, I don't know.”

Knows Men Hard Loses Disease Weight Heavy Pursue God Knows Lose Weight Thyroid Pheromones

Author:Erica Jong

“It's important to know what you're going to spend your life on, and the only way you're going to find that is by connecting with the force inside yourself.”

Knows Way Important Force Connecting

Author:Erica Jong

“You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough.”

Knows Years Wells Enough Certain Poet Amount Maturity Sixteen Sixteen Year Olds

Author:Erica Jong

“If you don't have time to do it right you must have time to do it right you must have time to do it over. If you don't know where you are going, how do you know when you get there? If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.”

Ifs Knows Risk Where You Are Do You Know Where You Are Going

Author:Erica Jong

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

“I know so many women in their fifties, sixties and seventies who delight in being on their own. It's amazing. They don't see any stigma attached to it. We don't need a man to prove our identity anymore.”

Knows Men Needs Identity Prove Delight Sixty Seventies Stigma

Author:Erica Jong

“There is still the feeling that women's writing is a lesser class of writing, that what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield, that what women know about is a less category of knowledge.”

Knows Writing Stills Important Feelings Class Goes On Categories Bedroom Battlefields Nursery

Author:Erica Jong

“I don't know what the definition of pornography is and nobody else does either. Pornography is somebody else's erotica that you don't like. People are interested in their own sexuality and they've always reflected it in their art. End of story.”

People Knows Doe Art Ends Stories Definitions Sexuality Pornography

Author:Erica Jong

“All natural disasters are comforting because they reaffirm our impotence, in which, otherwise, we might stop believing. At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.”

Knows Believe Might Natural Disaster Comforting Impotence Powerlessness Natural Disaster

Book:Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

Source: Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

“I don't think you will ever fully understand how you've touched my life and made me who I am. I don't think you could ever know just how truly special you are that even on the darkest nights you are my brightest star”

Thinking Knows Made Night Stars Special Who I Am Touched Special You Brightest Star

Author:Erica Jong

“I know some good marriages-marriages where both people are just trying to get through their days by helping each other, being good to each other.”

People Knows Trying Helping Marriage Be Good Helping Each Other Good Marriage Helpfulness

Author:Erica Jong

“I am old enough to know that laughter, not anger, is the true revelation.”

Knows Enough Laughter Revelations

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“I am not quite sure how writing changes things, but I know that it does. It is indirect-like the trails of earthworms aerating the earth. It is not always deliberate-like the tails of glowing dust dragged by comets.”

Knows Writing Doe Earth Dust Tails Trails Deliberate Glowing Indirect Comets

Book:What Do Women Want?: Bread, Roses, Sex, Power

Source: What Do Women Want?: Bread, Roses, Sex, Power

“At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.”

Knows Powerlessness

Book:Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

Source: Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary Edition

About the Author

Born: March 26, 1942
Known for: Author
Quotes: 446

Books & Sources

how to save your own lifeRelated source material

Fear of FiftyRelated source material

Fear of Flying: 40th Anniversary EditionRelated source material

fear of flyingRelated source material

Becoming Light: Poems New and SelectedRelated source material

What Do Women Want?: Essays by Erica JongRelated source material

Seducing the Demon: Writing for My LifeRelated source material

Fear of Fifty: A Midlife MemoirRelated source material

Shylock's Daughter: A Novel of Love in VeniceRelated source material

FannyRelated source material

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