Erica Jong Quotes

Author Image

Erica Jong

Profession : Novelist

Birth : March 26, 1942

I've never been able to control my public image.

Erica Jong

I have forgotten my rave reviews and memorized my vicious ones - like most writers.

Erica Jong

It's hard to do fiction and nonfiction simultaneously.

Erica Jong

I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.

Erica Jong

Poetry is what we turn to in the most emotional moments of our life - when a beloved friend dies, when a baby is born or when we fall in love.

Erica Jong

Poetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan.

Erica Jong

When I met my husband, I refused to invite him home for Passover because I was embarrassed my mother might serve all the catered dishes in the wrong order.

Erica Jong

I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing.

Erica Jong

I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper.

Erica Jong

All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.

Erica Jong

My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.

Erica Jong

Women are not the richer sex. Women are not equal in society.

Erica Jong

At certain historic moments, grandparents took on childrearing responsibilities. In many cultures, they still do. Chinese grandparents who are able to retire at 55 are seen all over Beijing bouncing grandbabies. In the United States, we can't afford to retire at 55.

Erica Jong

Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women.

Erica Jong

Women are individuals in parenting, and why not?

Erica Jong

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

Erica Jong

It was unimaginable what happens to you when you get known for a book that everybody reads, or that everybody has heard of. If the book is said to be sexy, the crazies come out of the woodwork.

Erica Jong

I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that I kept on writing poetry. I understand that poetry is sort of the source of everything I do. It's the source of my creativity.

Erica Jong

Often I find that poems predict what I'm going to do later in my own writing, and often I find that poems predict my life. So I think poetry is the most intense expression of feeling that we have.

Erica Jong

In poetry you can express almost inexpressible feelings. You can express the pain of loss, you can express love. People always turn to poetry when someone they love dies, when they fall in love.

Erica Jong