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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Famous Erica Jong Quotes

“The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself.”

Needs Doe Beats Slave Beaten

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“Why does life need evidence of life?”

Needs Doe Evidence

Book:Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected

Source: Becoming Light: Poems New and Selected

“Not everybody has to be a parent. In fact, in an overpopulated world where our resources are shrinking, it would be wonderful if people who didn't want children felt free to say so. In the 1970s, there was more tolerance for the idea that not everybody needs to be a biological parent.”

People Ifs World Want Needs Children Ideas Facts Would Be Felt Parent Wonderful Resources Tolerance Shrinking

Author:Erica Jong

“beware the Lure of a handsome Face, the all too ready Assumption that the lovely Façade must needs have lovely Chambers within; for as 'tis with Great Houses, so, too, with Great Men.”

Men Needs Faces House Beauty Ready Lovely Assumption Great Men Handsome Chamber Lure

Author:Erica Jong

“You reach a point in life where you realize that you might as well do what you need to do, because your being loved or not being loved is really a function of the people you encounter and not of yourself. That is an immensely liberating insight.”

People Needs Wells Might Realizing Confidence Function Insight Encounters Liberating Being Loved Points In Life

Author:Erica Jong

“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.”

Ifs Needs Made Gift From God

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“we need poetry most at those moments when life astounds us with losses, gains, or celebrations. We need it most when we are most hurt, most happy, most downcast, most jubilant. Poetry is the language we speak in times of greatest need. And the fact that it is an endangered species in our culture tells us that we are in deep trouble.”

Needs Moments Facts Culture Speak Language Hurt Loss Trouble Gains Species Poetry Is Celebration Endangered Species

Author:Erica Jong

“Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It's really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Writing Left Responsibility Audience Dangerous Response Profession

Book:Conversations with Erica Jong

Source: Conversations with Erica Jong

“A baby's mother also needs a mother.”

Needs Mother Baby

Book:Fear of Fifty

Source: Fear of Fifty

“I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you cannot protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so.”

“I don't necessarily read everything. I read what I need to read to inspire the book I'm trying to finish.”

Needs Trying Book Inspire

Author:Erica Jong

“I didn't believe in systems. Everything human was imperfect and ultimately absurd. What did I believe in then? In humor. In laughing at systems, at people, at one's self. In laughing even at one's need to laugh all the time. In seeing life as contradictory, many-sided, various, funny, tragic, and with moments of outrageous beauty. In seeing life as a fruitcake, including delicious plums and bad peanuts, but meant to be devoured hungrily all the same because you couldn't feast on the plums without also sometimes being poisoned by the peanuts.”

“We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep.”

Want Needs Humans Parent Sleep Baby Perfection Being Human Ambivalent Need Sleep

Author:Erica Jong

“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

“Motherhood cannot finally be delegated. Breast-feeding may succumb to the bottle; cuddling, fondling, and paediatric visits may also be done by fathers...but when a child needs a mother to talk to, nobody else but a mother will do.”

Needs May Children Done Mother Father Mom Motherhood Breasts Bottles Feeding Being A Mom Cuddling Fondling

Author:Erica Jong

“We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly...spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.- Susan Taylor--Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.”

Needs Giving Mind Order Opportunity Dark Our Lives Talent Solitude Quiet Spending Honestly Nurture Me Alone Dark Places Alone Time Quiet Time

Author:Erica Jong

“What I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not exhortation. 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.”

Source: Fear of Fifty

“If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs.”

Ifs Needs Sufficient

Author:Erica Jong

“Books go out into the world, travel mysteriously from hand to hand, and somehow find their way to the people who need them at the times when they need them ... Cosmic forces guide such passings-along.”

People World Way Needs Book Hands Force Guides Passing Passings Cosmic Travel The World Long Book

Book:how to save your own life

Source: how to save your own life

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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