Erica Jong is an American novelist, satirist, and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. These Erica Jong quotes will motivate you.
Best Erica Jong Quotes
- “Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. That’s why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” ~ Erica Jong
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“Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.” ~ Erica Jong
- “You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love and loyalty. They depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog; it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” ~ Erica Jong
- “The trick is not how much pain you feel–but how much joy you feel. Any idiot can feel pain. Life is full of excuses to feel pain, excuses not to live, excuses, excuses, excuses.” ~ Erica Jong
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“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I don’t think that sex necessarily produces intimacy.” ~ Erica Jong Quotes
- “What I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not exhortation. Freedom is a loose leash, license to be different from your mother and still be loved…Freedom is…not insisting that your daughter share your limitations. Freedom also means letting your daughter reject you when she needs to and come back when she needs to. Freedom is unconditional love.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I have accepted fear as a part of life – specifically the fear of change… I have gone ahead despite the pounding in the heart that says: turn back.” ~ Erica Jong
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“Art is always an energy exchange.” ~ Erica Jong
- “The trick is not how much pain you feel – but how much joy you feel” ~ Erica Jong Quotes
- “I don’t think you will ever fully understand how you’ve touched my life and made me who I am. I don’t think you could ever know just how truly special you are that even on the darkest nights you are my brightest star” ~ Erica Jong
- “Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I don’t know what the definition of pornography is and nobody else does either. Pornography is somebody else’s erotica that you don’t like. People are interested in their own sexuality and they’ve always reflected it in their art. End of story.” ~ Erica Jong
- “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
- “Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.”
- “Conflict is the soul of literature.” ~ Erica Jong
- “The soul is awakened through service.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I want you. I want you. I want you. Anything to avoid saying: I love you.” ~ Erica Jong
- “It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.” ~ Erica Jong
- “The only difference between men and women is that women are able to create new little human beings in their bodies while simultaneously writing books, driving tractors, working in offices, planting crops – in general, doing everything men do.” ~ Erica Jong
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“Love is everything it’s cracked up to be. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.”
- “Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.” ~ Erica Jong Quotes
- “Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Betrayal betrays the betrayer.” ~ Erica Jong
- “They keep saying the right person will come along. I think mine got hit by a truck.” ~ Erica Jong
- “The sexuality doesn’t end. It really doesn’t. You’re sexual your whole life if you’re a sexual person.” ~ Erica Jong
- “We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Anger is really disappointed hope.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I am old enough to know that laughter, not anger, is the true revelation.” ~ Erica Jong
- “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
- “I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me.” ~ Erica Jong
- “Creativity demands nothing less than all you have. Talent alone is never enough.” ~ Erica Jong
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“Keeping a journal implies hope.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I hope we don’t have to keep going back over the same territory and winning the same rights over and over again. The battle for birth control. The battle for abortion. The parity of women’s health. It’s very depressing to think that you win these rights, but then you have to win them again, and again, and again, and fight the same battles over and over.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn’t have to choose. And I believe that’s always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.” ~ Erica Jong
- “I stand in the mist and cry, thinking of myself standing in the mist and crying, and wondering if I will ever be able to use this experience in a book.” ~ Erica Jong
- “My mother wanted me to be her wings, to fly as she never quite had the courage to do. I love her for that. I love the fact that she wanted to give birth to her own wings.” ~ Erica Jong
- “My mother wanted me to be her wings, to fly as she never quite had the courage to do. I love her for that. I love the fact that she wanted to give birth to her own wings.” ~ Erica Jong
- “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
