Quotes from Erica Jong

Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations.

There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.

The worst thing about jealousy is how low it makes you reach.

All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes.

I believe I belong to the last literary generation, the last generation, that is, for whom books are a religion.

in freeing myself from the romantic dream of finding another man to come along and rescue me, I learned that no one can rescue me except myself.

Love gives without taking

Faith is the Knowledge of the Heart, Logick the Knowledge of the Mind.

Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.

But if the gods do not exist at all - then we are lost,' I said. On the contrary - we are found!' said Aesop. But when we are afraid, who can we turn to, if not the gods?' Ourselves. We turn to ourselves anyway. We only pretend there are gods and that they care about us. It is a comforting falsehood.

A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive.

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

Life has no plot. It is by far more interesting than anything you can say about it...

There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.

Denounce useless guilt. Don't make a cult of suffering. Live in the now(or at least the soon). Always do the things you fear most. Courage is an acquired taste like caviar. Trust all joy. If the evil eye fixes you in its gaze, look elsewhere. Get ready to be 87.

Though my friends envied me because I always seemed so cheerful and confident, I was secretly terrified of practically everything.

The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.

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.

Sometimes it was worth all the disadvantages of marriage just to have that: one friend in an indifferent world.

There is nothing fiercer than a failed artist. The energy remains, but, having no outlet, it implodes in a great black fart of rage which smokes up all the inner windows of the soul. Horrible as successful artists often are, there is nothing crueler or more vain than a failed artist.

All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. 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.

You are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner. Shakespeare wrote without knowing he would become Shakespeare

the body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god's messenger.