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" 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. "
Erica Jong
Hand
Year
Book
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" Poetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan. "
Erica Jong
Poetry
School
Think
" Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared. "
Erica Jong
Always
Men
Women
" The trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. "
Erica Jong
Even
You
Risk
" It's hard to do fiction and nonfiction simultaneously. "
Erica Jong
Hard
Nonfiction
Fiction
" 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
Me
Pictures
People
" I've never been able to control my public image. "
Erica Jong
Never
Public
Image
" 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
" 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. "
Erica Jong
Over
Cultures
Grandparents
" My grandchildren are fabulous and funny. "
Erica Jong
Funny
Grandchildren
Fabulous
" I don't think that I had any idea that 'Fear of Flying' would become a part of the culture. I had no idea that it would go all over the world and be published in Chinese and Serbo-Croat and so on. "
Erica Jong
Go
Think
World
" 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. "
Erica Jong
Marriage
People
Hurt
" Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. "
Erica Jong
Know
Ask
Answer
" 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. "
Erica Jong
My Life
Poetry
Think
" I have a very sensitive nose. I identify with dogs. I understand the world through my nose. "
Erica Jong
Dogs
Understand
Through
" Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness. "
Erica Jong
Equality
Group
Women
" 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. "
Erica Jong
Home
Wrong
Serve
" I think that Sappho expresses the orphaned part of ourselves. The orphaned part of ourselves that reaches out to passion for completion. That reaches out to motherhood for completion. "
Erica Jong
Passion
Motherhood
Completion
" Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood. "
Erica Jong
Country
Italy
America
" Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God. "
Erica Jong
Ears
Brain
American
" I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that I kept on writing poetry. I understand that poetry is sort of the source of everything I do. It's the source of my creativity. "
Erica Jong
Creativity
Writing
Proud
" 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
Poet
You
Want
" Poetry is what we turn to in the most emotional moments of our life - when a beloved friend dies, when a baby is born or when we fall in love. "
Erica Jong
Baby
Friend
Poetry
" If you don't risk anything, you risk even more. "
Erica Jong
More
You
Risk
" I don't cook. My mother didn't cook. My daughter doesn't cook. "
Erica Jong
Cook
Mother
Daughter
" People always think that history proceeds in a straight line. It doesn't. Social attitudes don't change in a straight line. There's always a backlash against progressive ideas. "
Erica Jong
Think
People
Ideas
" 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. "
Erica Jong
Poor
Women
Rich
" Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own. "
Erica Jong
Own
Rhythm
Wonderful
" Men and women, women and men. It will never work. "
Erica Jong
Women
Work
Men
" We all parent the best we can. Being human, we're ambivalent. We want perfection for our babies, but we also need sleep. "
Erica Jong
Parent
Sleep
Perfection
" As a past president of the Writers Guild, I think women shouldn't write for free. Maybe you have to do it for a time, to make a reputation, but I think the idea of giving your work away is the beginning of authors not being able to make a living. "
Erica Jong
Women
Free
Beginning