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I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark.

Erica Jong

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Erica Jong
Age: 82
Born: 1942
Born: March 26
Author
Feminist
Novelist
Poet
Writer
New York City
New York
Erica Mann Jong
Immediate
Direct
Short
Poetry
Started
Dark
Matches
Striking
Ecstasy

More quotes by Erica Jong

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Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.
Erica Jong
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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
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Why do analysts always answer a question with a question?
Erica Jong
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Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
Erica Jong
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Women tend to be preservers of the social structure, of marriage. They don't want to upset their husbands or their significant others. They don't want to hurt people.
Erica Jong
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Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments.
Erica Jong
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The dilemma is that if one does not risk anything one risks even more.
Erica Jong
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The trick is not how much pain you feel - but how much joy you feel
Erica Jong
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Perhaps every generation thinks of itself as a lost generation and perhaps every generation is right.
Erica Jong
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I want you. I want you. I want you. Anything to avoid saying: I love you.
Erica Jong
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A Soul is partly given, partly wrought remember always that you are the Maker of your own Soul.
Erica Jong
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As yet we use our media only for selling things - including, of course, political candidates. What will happen when someone masters the art of selling souls?
Erica Jong
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the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god’s messenger.
Erica Jong
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You're not too fat you're just in the wrong country.
Erica Jong
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I am not sure if love is a salve or just a deeper kind of wound.
Erica Jong
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I've become more conservative about sex as I've gotten older.
Erica Jong
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Turning fifty ... is like flying: hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
Erica Jong
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It is the nature of those books we call classics to wait patiently on the shelf for us to grow into them.
Erica Jong
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Women's books are kind of discriminated against. If a man writes a book about his family stories, people think of it as literature. If it's a woman, she's 'spilling her guts,' and it's not art.
Erica Jong
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You must have a certain amount of maturity to be a poet. Seldom do sixteen-year-olds know themselves well enough.
Erica Jong