02c. 1942 ADThe words carry their own momentum. A confession in motion tends to stay in motion. Newton's first law of jealousy.Erica Jong / quote ↗
03c. 1942 ADRendall's first law of jealousy: jealousy does the cock harder and pussy wetter.Erica Jong / quote ↗
05c. 1942 ADFame turns out to be a powerful instrument of grace because it humbles its chosen victims in a hurry. You sail into it, your canvas swelled with grandiosity, and when your fifteen minutes are over and you are becalmed, you realize that grandiosity cannot take you where you need to go.Only then do you learn to row like hell, asking God for the strength to stay afloat.Erica Jong / quote ↗
06c. 1942 ADWe also fought about everything -- like real sisters. We fought about money, bedrooms, whose car to take. Everyone of these fights was actually about something else -- usually abandonment. I wanted to be first on her list and she wanted to be first on mine. I wanted all her attention, all her love, all her care. I wanted her to be my mommy, my daddy, my sister. She wanted the same from me. She wanted to be fed, cared for, nurtured without limit. She wanted backrubs, poems, pastas, and to be left alone when she needed to be left alone. She wanted to come before my writing, my child, my man. And I wanted no less from her.She was sick at first, so I took care of her. Then I was jealous of the attention and she took care of me. We had gone down into the primal cave of our friendship. we had felt loved enough to rage and fight, to show the inside of our naked throats and our bared fags, and the friendship took another leap toward intimacy. Without rage, intimacy can't be.Erica Jong / quote ↗
07c. 1942 ADGenerations of women have sacrificed their lives to become their mothers. But we do not have that luxury any more. The world has changed too much to let us have the lives our mothers had. And we can no longer afford the guilt we feel at not being our mothers. We cannot afford any guilt that pulls us back to the past. We have to grow up, whether we want to or not. We have to stop blaming men and mothers and seize every second of our lives with passion. We can no longer afford to waste our creativity. We cannot afford spiritual laziness.Erica Jong / quote ↗
08c. 1942 ADWomen in America read 'lifestyle' pages which are really glorifications of shopping. They teach us we must veil ourselves in make-up to be loved. And we willingly take the veil, thinking ourselves freed by it. Make-up is no more optional for us than the veil is for Arab women: it is our Western version of the chador.Erica Jong / quote ↗
09c. 1942 ADI 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 / quote ↗
10c. 1942 ADI have not ceased being fearful but I have ceased to let fear control me.Erica Jong / quote ↗
11c. 1942 ADEveryone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.Erica Jong / quote ↗
13c. 1942 ADI 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 / quote ↗
15c. 1942 ADI went for years not finishing anything. Because of course when you finish something you can be judged.... I had poems which were rewritten so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.Erica Jong / quote ↗
16c. 1942 ADIf every day I dare to remember that I am here on loan that this house this hillside these minutes are all leased to me not given I will never despair.Erica Jong / quote ↗
19c. 1942 ADI write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.Erica Jong / quote ↗
22c. 1942 ADI was afraid to write Fear of Flying ergo I had to write it. I have lived my life according to this principle: If I'm afraid of it then I must do it.Erica Jong / quote ↗
23c. 1942 ADEveryone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.Erica Jong / quote ↗
24c. 1942 ADDo 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 everything you risk even more.Erica Jong / quote ↗
