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
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. – Erica Jong
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
Men have always detested women’s gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared. – Erica Jong
All my forebears worked for a living. My grandfather painted portraits. My mother too. My aunt painted seascapes. – Erica Jong
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word. – Erica Jong
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
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
I 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
It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone. – Erica Jong
Women are the only exploited group in history to have been idealized into powerlessness. – Erica Jong
Is a currency worth anything if no one wants it? We used to buy shoes in Italy. Remember? – Erica Jong
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. – Erica Jong
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
