Quotes By Author: erica jong

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

“Critics write out of intellectual exercise, not poets. Poets write straight from the heart.”

“Most people in this country are looking for literature that is useful. They feel that just exploring their feelings is good enough – they should be reading about leveraged buy-outs or how to get thin. We live in a culture that is so absolutely, madly focused on commercialism and on creating money and completely turned away from any other kind of creative value. People don’t generally turn to poetry unless they’re bereaved or have fallen in love. Or in adolescence, when their feelings are very strong and turbulent. I think most of us are dying for lack of spirit in this culture.”

“Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down–revising and embellishing as I go. I’m always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.”

“Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man.”

“the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god’s messenger.”

“I have accepted fear as part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back….”