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Erica Jong

Erica Jong Quotes

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Famous Erica Jong Quotes

“I was always a feminist. My mother was a feminist; my grandmother was a feminist. I always understood women had to fight very hard to do what they wanted to do in the world - that it wasn't an easy choice. But I think the most important part is that we all want the right to be taken seriously as human beings, and to use our talents without reservation, and that's still not possible for women.”

ThinkingWorldWantHumansStillsImportantHardUseWantedMotherChoicesFightingEasyHuman BeingsTakenTalentUnderstoodFeministGrandmotherMy GrandmotherReservations
Author:Erica Jong
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“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.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldChildrenArtSchoolMotherGirlBreakKnow HowHonestTalentWasteBlockPainterPrizeBreak ThroughArt SchoolHaving Children
Author:Erica Jong
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“I hope we don't have to keep going back over the same territory and winning the same rights over and over again. The battle for birth control. The battle for abortion. The parity of women's health. It's very depressing to think that you win these rights, but then you have to win them again, and again, and again, and fight the same battles over and over.”

ThinkingFightingWinningRightsBirthBattleAbortionKeep GoingTerritoryAgain And AgainDepressingBirth ControlParityWomen's HealthVery Depressing
Author:Erica Jong
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“I am against censorship. I prefer the chaos of uncontrollable communication of all sorts to selective banning of certain materials. I do not think human beings can be trusted to be above politics and to promote the common good. One group's common good is another group's evil.”

ThinkingHumansCertainEvilHuman BeingsCommonGroupsMaterialsCommunicationChaosCensorshipTrustedPornographyCommon GoodSelectiveUncontrollable
Book:What Do Women Want?: Essays by Erica Jong
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“There is this tendency to think that if you could only find the magic way, then you could become a poet. "Tell me how to become a poet. Tell me what to do." . . . What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it.”

IfsThinkingWayHeartLittlesImportantTogetherLanguageAbilityDealsMagicPoetMaterialsTendenciesUnconsciousFormulasAbility To SeeGimmicks
Author:Erica Jong
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“The bruise on the heart which at first feels incredibly tender to the slightest touch eventually turns all the shades of the rainbow and stops aching. We forget about it. We even forget we have hearts until the next time. And then we wonder how we ever could have forgotten. We think this one is better, because, in fact, we cannot fully remember the time before.”

ThinkingFeelsFirstsHeartFactsRememberTurnsNextForgetWonderForgottenShadeRainbowNext TimeBruises
Book:fear of flying
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“The greatest feminists have also been the greatest lovers. I'm thinking not only of Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley, but of Anais Nin, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and of course Sappho. You cannot divide creative juices from human juices. And as long as juicy women are equated with bad women, we will err on the side of being bad.”

ThinkingHumansLongMotherCoursesWomenSidesCreativeLoversDaughterFeministDividesMaryJuiceJuicyShelleyBeing BadBad WomanCreative Juices
Author:Erica Jong
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“I am thinking of the onion again. . . . Not self-righteous like the proletarian potato, nor a siren like the apple. No show-off like the banana. But a modest, self-effacing vegetable, questioning, introspective, peeling itself away, or merely radiating halos like ripples.”

ThinkingSelfShowsApplesVegetablesRighteousQuestioningModestyModestPotatoesIntrospectiveBananasShowing OffRippleOnionsSelf RighteousSirensHalosPeeling
Book:Becoming light: poems, new and selected
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