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" I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately. "

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" I 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

Ahead

Change

Life

" Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women. "

" Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends. "

Erica Jong

Successful

Sometimes

" Singularity shows something wrong in the mind. "

" Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed. "

" It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone. "

" At certain historic moments, grandparents took on childrearing responsibilities. In many cultures, they still do. Chinese grandparents who are able to retire at 55 are seen all over Beijing bouncing grandbabies. In the United States, we can't afford to retire at 55. "

" The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise. "

" I write slowly by hand. Publishing is effectively bankrupt for you unless you are Danielle Steele. It takes a year to write book and advances are going down or disappearing. "

" Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. "

" If you don't risk anything, you risk even more. "

Erica Jong

You

Risk

" Often I find that poems predict what I'm going to do later in my own writing, and often I find that poems predict my life. So I think poetry is the most intense expression of feeling that we have. "

" I think professionalism is important, and professionalism means you get paid. "

" In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving - instead of actually getting up and leaving. "

" When everyone thinks they know you, it's hard not to be guarded. "

" Women tend to be preservers of the social structure, of marriage. They don't want to upset their husbands or their significant others. They don't want to hurt people. "

" You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. "

" And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. "

" Men and women, women and men. It will never work. "

" When I met my husband, I refused to invite him home for Passover because I was embarrassed my mother might serve all the catered dishes in the wrong order. "

" It's hard to do fiction and nonfiction simultaneously. "

" What are the sources of poetry? Love and death and the paradox of love and death. All poetry from the beginning is about Eros and Thanatos. Those are the only subjects. And how Eros and Thanatos interweave. "

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

Erica Jong

Dark

Talent

" I have a very sensitive nose. I identify with dogs. I understand the world through my nose. "

" You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. "

" Women are not the richer sex. Women are not equal in society. "

" Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God. "

" I thought to spend my declining years writing poetry and teaching - but that won't pay the Bergdorf's bill. I think I'll move to somewhere life is cheaper. "

" When I was a ten-year old bookworm and used to kiss the dust jacket pictures of authors as if they were icons, it used to amaze me that these remote people could provoke me to love. "

Erica Jong

Pictures

People

" I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets. "