Quote

Unhappiness is our element. We come to believe we can't function without it.

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
Function
Elements
Come
Without
Believe
Unhappiness
Element

More quotes by Erica Jong

Image
It is the nature of those books we call classics to wait patiently on the shelf for us to grow into them.
Erica Jong
Image
Famous people complain about fame, but they never want to give it back, myself included.
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
A book is a box brimming with incendiary material. The reader strikes the match.
Erica Jong
Image
In a world where women work three times as hard for half as much, our achievement has been denigrated, both marriage and divorce have turned against us, our motherhood has been used as an obstacle to our success, our passion as a trap, our empathy for others as an excuse to underpay us.
Erica Jong
Image
What a damnably lonely profession writing is! In order to do it, one must banish the world, and having banished it, one feels cosmically alone.
Erica Jong
Image
I think the Jews are an amazing group of people and their survival is amazing.
Erica Jong
Image
If, every day, I dare to remember that I am here on loan, that this house, this hillside, these minutes are all leased to me, not given, I will never despair.
Erica Jong
Image
If you've been a pretty woman and always pursued by lovers, losing that and not having that - it feels like a great loss.
Erica Jong
Image
There is a rhythm to the ending of a marriage just like the rhythm of a courtship, only backward.
Erica Jong
Image
I remember everything but forgive anyway.
Erica Jong
Image
Never joke with the press. Irony does not translate into newsprint.
Erica Jong
Image
Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old.
Erica Jong
Image
How wonderful to have someone to blame! How wonderful to live with one's nemesis! You may be miserable, but you feel forever in the right.
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
certain very old people reach an age where every funeral becomes some sort of insane confirmation of strength, rather than of vulnerability, as it is when we are in our thirties or forties and our friends die.
Erica Jong
Image
Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry.
Erica Jong
Image
Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world.
Erica Jong
Image
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
Image
I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.
Erica Jong