Quotes from Erica Jong
We're programmed for suffering, not joy. The masochism is built in at a very early age. You're supposed to work and suffer - and the trouble is: you believe it.
— Erica Jong
Anybody who instantly goes from being a poet and a graduate student to being a public figure has to be in a state of shock. First people want to praise you, and then they want to attack you. No one can prepare you for it.
— Erica Jong
At fifty the madwoman in the attic breaks loose, stomps down the stairs, and sets fire to the house. She won't be imprisoned anymore.
— Erica Jong
I have forgotten my rave reviews and memorized my vicious ones - like most writers.
— Erica Jong
Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.
— Erica Jong
It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.
— Erica Jong
The most important education you get is your own - the one you learn in solitude.
— Erica Jong
Always do the things you fear the most. Courage is an acquired taste, like caviar.
— Erica Jong
Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.
— Erica Jong
Allow me to put the record straight. I am forty-six and have been for some years past.
— Erica Jong
Beware of the man who denounces women writers; his penis is tiny and he cannot spell.
— Erica Jong
I know some good marriages - marriages where both people are just trying to get through their days by helping each other, being good to each other
— Erica Jong