Quote

Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old.

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
Keats
Braver
Worshipped
Dying
Dies
Young
Think
Thinking

More quotes by Erica Jong

Image
Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.
Erica Jong
Image
Turning fifty ... is like flying: hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.
Erica Jong
Image
If sex and creativity are often seen by dictators as subversive activities, it's because they lead to the knowledge that you own your own body (and with it your own voice), and that's the most revolutionary insight of all.
Erica Jong
Image
It is a sad paradox that when male authors impersonate women ... they are said to be dealing with 'cosmic, major concerns' - but when we impersonate ourselves we are said to be writing 'women's fiction' or 'women's poetry.
Erica Jong
Image
Writing is one of the few professions left where you take all the responsibility for what you do. It's really dangerous and ultimately destroys you as a writer if you start thinking about responses to your work or what your audience needs.
Erica Jong
Image
We've lost more men to homosexuality than we ever did in two world wars.
Erica Jong
Image
When I'm sitting at the desk not being able to write line one, it's silence and despair! It's not so easy to put the pen to the legal pad or type the first sentence on the computer screen.
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
Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry.
Erica Jong
Image
Don't ye know that ev'ry Soul on Earth feels itself to be an Orphan?
Erica Jong
Image
Being a daughter is only half the equation bearing one is the other.
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
Women are individuals in parenting, and why not?
Erica Jong
Image
A wet dream in the mind of New York.
Erica Jong
Image
I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading.
Erica Jong
Image
Isn't that the problem? That women have been swindled for centuries into substituting adornment for love, fashion (as it were) for passion?
Erica Jong
Image
I think feminism means what it has always meant - women want to use all their gifts, all their talents and be judged impartially for them. I don't think feminism has ever meant anything else.
Erica Jong
Image
Poetry is what we turn to in the most emotional moments of our life - when a beloved friend dies, when a baby is born or when we fall in love.
Erica Jong
Image
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.
Erica Jong
Image
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
Erica Jong