Quote

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

Erica Jong

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Erica Jong
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 26
Author
Feminist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
New York City
New York
Erica Mann Jong
Getting
Money
Firsts
Published
First
Poets
Even
Miracle
Never
Became
Poet
Writer

More quotes by Erica Jong

Image
When everyone thinks they know you, it's hard not to be guarded.
Erica Jong
Image
Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old.
Erica Jong
Image
I think professionalism is important, and professionalism means you get paid.
Erica Jong
Image
Critics write out of intellectual exercise, not poets. Poets write straight from the heart.
Erica Jong
Image
Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.
Erica Jong
Image
I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark.
Erica Jong
Image
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.
Erica Jong
Image
As a reader, I want a book to kidnap me into its world. Its world must make my so-called real world seem flimsy. Its world must lure me to return. When I close the book, I should feel bereft.
Erica Jong
Image
Each day that I don't write I get more fragmented.
Erica Jong
Image
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.
Erica Jong
Image
Why do analysts always answer a question with a question?
Erica Jong
Image
writers do not choose their subjects their subjects choose them.
Erica Jong
Image
Famous people complain about fame, but they never want to give it back, myself included.
Erica Jong
Image
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.
Erica Jong
Image
I see that the greatest thing about getting older is how your judgment changes and how you come to understand the cycles of life. And you keep having these amazing flashes of understanding.
Erica Jong
Image
tis true that tho' People can transcend their Characters in Times of Tranquillity, they can ne'er do so in Times of Tumult.
Erica Jong
Image
Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.
Erica Jong
Image
It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write.
Erica Jong
Image
Ken, my husband, just smelled like he belonged to me. I'm not talking about hygiene. I'm talking about when you hug him, he either feels like a member of your tribe or not. It's their scent.
Erica Jong
Image
The absolute bedrock of our independence is having control over our own bodies. You cannot be independent if the government or someone else says whether or not you can use birth control. Unless you're in charge of your body, you're not in charge of anything. I think that's really the bottom line of feminism.
Erica Jong