each of us only feels the torn lining of his own coat and sees the wholeness of the other person's. Erica Jong More Quotes by Erica Jong More Quotes From Erica Jong Why does life need evidence of life? Erica Jong evidence doe needs Never follow a dog act. You know you're on the skids when you play yourself in the movie version of your life. Erica Jong dog knows play I myself hate that old Hemingwayesque paradigm of the writer as prizefighter and I have tried hard to create an alternate one for myself. When Anne Sexton admonished me, "We are all writing God's poem," I took it to mean there should be no competition between writers because we are all involved in a common project, a common prayer. But to Gore's and Norman's generation, particularly those male writers who served in the second world war, the prizefighter paradigm remains. Erica Jong hate prayer war Women who bear children before they establish serious habits of work, may never establish them at all. Erica Jong women may children Blaming women is always in fashion. Erica Jong blame women fashion No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Erica Jong fool wisdom found Memory is the crux of our humanity. Without memory we have no identities. That is really why I am committing an autobiography. Erica Jong identity humanity memories Singularity shows something wrong in the mind. Erica Jong adaptability shows mind It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write. Erica Jong parting writing thinking Pain is not love. Love flowers; love gives without taking; love is serene and calm. Erica Jong pain flower love-is And what if I don't want forgiveness? Erica Jong what-if ifs want In loving life you love what can't survive. Erica Jong loving-life The future is merely a shadow which blocks out the joys of the present and emphasizes the miseries of the past. Erica Jong block joy past Because I loved myself, I was loved. Erica Jong Birth is the start of loneliness and loneliness the start of poetry. Erica Jong birth loneliness Exceptional people are often called crazy by the ordinary world. Erica Jong ordinary-world crazy people I think that the joy of writing a novel is the self-exploratio n that emerges and also that wonderful feeling of playing God with the characters. When I sit down at my writing desk, time seems to vanish. ... I think the most important thing for a writer is to be locked in a study. Erica Jong writing character thinking Surviving means being born over and over. Erica Jong born life mean Women 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 shopping america thinking But come back in November or December, in February or March, when the fog, la nebbia, settles upon the city like a marvelous monster, and you will have little trouble believing that things can appear and disappear in this labyrinthine city, or that time here could easily slip in its sprockets and take you, willingly or unwillingly, back. Erica Jong fog cities believe
