Erica Jong citations

Page 2

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

“There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.”

“…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.”

“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.”

“Women are their own worst enemies. And guilt is the main weapon of self-torture…Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilty and I’ll show you a man.”

“Great loves have legs and wings. They are substantial. They do not dissapate so easily… Great loves have staying power. Or so I told myself.”

“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.”

“All natural disasters are comforting because they reaffirm our impotence, in which, otherwise, we might stop believing. At times it is strangely sedative to know the extent of your own powerlessness.”

“I see the whole episode in my memory as if it were a very crisply photographed black and white movie. Directed by Bergman perhaps. We are playing ourselves in the movie version. If only we could escape from always having to play ourselves!”

“Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.”

“I want you. I want you. I want you. Anything to avoid saying: I love you.”

“Each one an antidote to the one that went before. Each one a reaction, an about-face, a rebound.”

“They all cheat sooner or later. You might as well have one who isn't a bore the rest of the time.”

“If you apologize for something that isn't your fault in the first place, you, in effect, confirm their belief that it is your fault.”

“Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world.”

“All people believe their suffering is greater than others.”

“…the ocean kept falling into itself, gathering itself up, and falling into itself again.”

“Betrayal does that -- betrays the betrayer.”

“Underneath it all, you longed to be annihilated by love…”

“Photographs… are the most curious indicators of reality.”

“Never follow a dog act. You know you're on the skids when you play yourself in the movie version of your life.”

“It takes a spasm of love to write a poem.”

“It's only when you're forbidden to talk about the future that you suddenly realize how much the future normally occupies the present.”

“The best slave does not need to be beaten. She beats herself.”

“Pain is not love. Love flowers; love gives without taking; love is serene and calm.”

“Since flesh can't stay, we pass the words along.”

“Loving someone is a loss of freedom -- but one doesn't think of it as loss because one gains so much else.”