If we can be sufficient unto ourselves, we need fear no entangling webs. Erica Jong More Quotes by Erica Jong More Quotes From Erica Jong My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher." - Socrates (470-399 B.C.) "Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't Erica Jong wife wish advice Isn't it our job to be appalled by our parents? Isn't it every generation's duty to be dismayed by the previous generation? And to assert that we are different - only to discover later that we are distressingly the same? Erica Jong different parent jobs You reach a point in life where you realize that you might as well do what you need to do, because your being loved or not being loved is really a function of the people you encounter and not of yourself. That is an immensely liberating insight. Erica Jong confidence encounters people There is this tendency to think that if you could only find the magic way, then you could become a poet. "Tell me how to become a poet. Tell me what to do." . . . What makes you a poet is a gift for language, an ability to see into the heart of things, and an ability to deal with important unconscious material. When all these things come together, you're a poet. But there isn't one little gimmick that makes you a poet. There isn't any formula for it. Erica Jong magic heart thinking Murky language means someone wants to pick your pocket. Erica Jong pockets want mean tis true that tho' People can transcend their Characters in Times of Tranquillity, they can ne'er do so in Times of Tumult. Erica Jong tranquillity character people we all carry the Houses of our Youth inside, and our Parents, too, grown small enough to fit within our Hearts. Erica Jong family home heart I do believe that in every age there are people whose consciousness transcends their own time and that these people, whether fictional or historical, are those with whom we most closely identify and those about whom we most enjoy reading. Erica Jong reading believe people I think professionalism is important, and professionalism means you get paid. Erica Jong important mean thinking It was the old psychosomatic side-step. Everyone in my family dances it at every opportunity. You've given me a splitting headache! You've given me indigestion! You've given me crotch rot! You've given me auditory hallucinations! You've given me a heart attack! You've given me cancer! Erica Jong cancer family heart Once I worshipped Keats for dying young. Now I think it's braver to die old. Erica Jong dying young thinking When everyone thinks they know you, it's hard not to be guarded. Erica Jong guarded knows thinking fame is merely the fact of being misunderstood by millions of people. Erica Jong misunderstood facts people Faith is the Knowledge of the Heart, Logick the Knowledge of the Mind. Erica Jong faith mind heart is there not an Arabick Proverb which goes, 'No one throws Stones at a Barren Tree'? Erica Jong envy jealousy tree Eating is never so simple as hunger. Erica Jong hunger eating simple We've lost more men to homosexuality than we ever did in two world wars. Erica Jong men war two I understand that unless you have a government of laws, rather than a government of people, you cannot protect dissent. And I understand, as a woman who probably would have been burned in the marketplace for witchcraft only about 200 years ago, that I need the First Amendment more than anybody does. And that even if I am repelled by child pornography or Bob Guccione's productions, that I have to protect those things, because essentially it's in my self-interest to do so. Erica Jong government self children If we ban whatever offends any group in our diverse society, we will soon have no art, no culture, no humor, no satire. Satire is by its nature offensive. So is much art and political discourse. The value of these expressions far outweighs their risk. Erica Jong diverse-society expression art A concern with 'public morality' is - if not the last refuge of a scoundrel - the first foray of the fascist. Erica Jong morality lasts firsts
