Quotes from Erica Jong

The virtues about marriage were mostly negative virtues. Being unmarried in a man's world was such a hassle that anything had to be better. Marriage was better. But not much. Damned clever, I thought, how men had made life so intolerable for single women that most would gladly embrace even bad marriages instead.

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.

Era come se lo stomaco pensasse di essere il cuore. E non importava quanto lo riempissi... di uomini, di libri, di cibo, di biscotti allo zenzero a forma di uomo, di poesie a forma di uomo e di uomini a forma di poesie... rifiutava di calmarsi. Senza fondo... ecco com'era. Ninfomania del cervello. Denutrizione del cuore.

It was clear to me that thinking yourself superior was a sure sign of being inferior and that thinking yourself extraordinary was a sure sign of being ordinary.

You know, when you get old, you see that everything is a joke. All the things you were passionate about don't mean a thing. You only did them to keep busy.

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

The adult world moved around us the way fetid water in a fish tank surrounds the little fish within.

Swinging London had swung right by without stopping.

Why is it so hard to be human being? I wonder. Why do we have to surrender? And to what? What if you refused to believe in a higher power? What if you thought you were the only trustworthy higher power? I have done that all my life and I know it doesn't work. You are not enough. Your will is not enough. But God? God is a pagan dream, conjured out of neediness.

L'ideale è un cauto ottimismo. Ma nel mio caso si tratta piuttosto di cauto pessimismo.

readers who think I have answers when all I have are a few pointed questions...

Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.

Non è necessario picchiare le donne se si riesce a farle sentire in colpa.

Io ti ho dato tutta la libertà che volevi.» «Questa è una contraddizione in termini. Una persona non è mai libera se la libertà le deve essere 'data'. Chi sei tu per 'darmi' la libertà?»

You're not a secretary; you're a poet. What makes you think your life is going to be uncomplicated? What makes you think you can avoid all conflict? What makes you think you can avoid pain? Or passion? There's something to be said for passion. Can't you ever allow yourself and forgive yourself?

Young women dream of romance and passion as men dream of conquest because those dreams are necessary goads to leaving home and growing up.

Non c'è niente di più terribile di un artista mancato. L'energia rimane, ma, priva com'è di una valvola di sfogo, implode in un gigantesco peto nero di rabbia che offusca tutte le finestre interne dell'anima. Anche se gli artisti di successo sono spesso orribili, non c'è niente di più crudele o vano di un artista fallito.

Women are the only exploited.....

British toilet paper. A way of life. Coated. Refusing to absorb, soften, or bend (stiff upper lip).

Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealised into powerlessness

Femeile sunt singurul grup exploatat din istorie a carui neputinta a fost idealizata.

If you were lucky enough to feel safe enough to fight and struggle, then you were lucky indeed. If you felt loved enough to scream and yell and exercise your power openly, the marriage had a fifty-fifty chance.

paunchiness, hairy and dark. He was also a human cannonball

And then there are the eternal questions of love and sex. Can there be friendship between men and women as long as the hormones rage and rule? How is sex related to love -- and love to sex? Are we truly pigeonholed in our sexuality -- or does society alone insist on this? What is 'straight'? What is 'gay'? What is 'bi'? And does any of it matter deep in one's soul? Shouldn't we get rid of these labels in an attempt to be really open to ourselves and to each other?