Quote

What is the fatal charm of Italy? What do we find there that can be found nowhere else? I believe it is a certain permission to be human, which other places, other countries, lost long ago.

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
Human
Charm
Humans
Countries
Country
Places
Long
Lost
Believe
Found
Italy
Else
Fatal
Certain
Permission
Find
Nowhere

More quotes by Erica Jong

Image
Though my friends envied me because I always seemed so cheerful and confident, I was secretly terrified of practically everything.
Erica Jong
Image
The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past.
Erica Jong
Image
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.
Erica Jong
Image
Perhaps every generation thinks of itself as a lost generation and perhaps every generation is right.
Erica Jong
Image
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
Image
Writers are always at the edge of the inferno, and the fire is licking at our toes. Luckily, this turns us on!
Erica Jong
Image
We write poems / as leaves give oxygen - / so we can breathe.
Erica Jong
Image
If you imagine the world listening, you'll never write a line. That's why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.
Erica Jong
Image
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.
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
What was the point of spending your life with someone you were always looking for ways to decieve?
Erica Jong
Image
You're not too fat you're just in the wrong country.
Erica Jong
Image
Each day that I don't write I get more fragmented.
Erica Jong
Image
As a past president of the Writers Guild, I think women shouldn't write for free. Maybe you have to do it for a time, to make a reputation, but I think the idea of giving your work away is the beginning of authors not being able to make a living.
Erica Jong
Image
You can't be creative and still be a good girl.
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
Someday every woman will have orgasms- like every family has color TV- and we can all get on with the business of life.
Erica Jong
Image
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
Image
The only rule I have when writing is to try to tell the truth. That doesn't mean you can't exaggerate, edit, rewrite things to make them more dramatic. But emotional truth is what I look for in writing.
Erica Jong
Image
The most important thing for a writer is to be locked in a study.
Erica Jong