Is there a phrase in the English language more fraught with menace than a tax audit? Erica Jong More Quotes by Erica Jong More Quotes From Erica Jong I have ne'er been in a chamber with a lawyer when I did not wish either to scream with desperation or else fall into the deepest of sleeps, e'en when the matter concern'd my own future most profoundly. Erica Jong wishsleepfall It is the nature of those books we call classics to wait patiently on the shelf for us to grow into them. Erica Jong shelveswaitingbook art is not advocacy and advocacy is not art. Erica Jong advocacyactivismart A Soul is partly given, partly wrought; remember always that you are the Maker of your own Soul. Erica Jong makerssoulremember we need poetry most at those moments when life astounds us with losses, gains, or celebrations. We need it most when we are most hurt, most happy, most downcast, most jubilant. Poetry is the language we speak in times of greatest need. And the fact that it is an endangered species in our culture tells us that we are in deep trouble. Erica Jong gainshurtloss Men must be stripped of arrogance and women must become independent for any mutually nurturing alliance to endure between the sexes. Erica Jong independentmensex I am never so calm as after I have written. And the next morning I will feel the familiar anxiety and I will have to begin the process all over again. Erica Jong anxietynextmorning Silence is the bluntest of blunt instruments. It seems to hammer you into the ground. It drives you deeper and deeper into your own guilt. It makes the voices inside your head accuse you more viciously than any outside voices ever could. Erica Jong voiceguiltsilence Writers are always at the edge of the inferno, and the fire is licking at our toes. Luckily, this turns us on! Erica Jong lickingtoesfire Writers are doubters, compulsives, self-flagellants. The torture only stops for brief moments. Erica Jong doubtersmomentsself It is a sad paradox that when male authors impersonate women ... they are said to be dealing with 'cosmic, major concerns' - but when we impersonate ourselves we are said to be writing 'women's fiction' or 'women's poetry. Erica Jong maleswritingfiction There is no loneliness like the loneliness of a dead marriage. Erica Jong loneliness A poem (surely someone has said this before) is a one-night stand, a short story a love affair, and a novel a marriage. Erica Jong literaturestoriesnight What a damnably lonely profession writing is! In order to do it, one must banish the world, and having banished it, one feels cosmically alone. Erica Jong lonelywritingorder I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark. Erica Jong ecstasypoetry-isdark Poetry is the inner life of a culture, its nervous system, its deepest way of imagining the world. A culture that ignores its poets, chokes off its nervous system and becomes mortally ill. Erica Jong culturewayworld Mediocre prose might be read as an escape, might be spoken on television by actors, or mouthed in movies. But mediocre poetry did not exist at all. If poetry wasn't good, it wasn't poetry. It was that simple. Erica Jong actorssimpletelevision Spring, / you are a pinking shears: you cut / fresh edges on the world. Erica Jong cuttingspringworld In a world not made for women, criticism and ridicule follow us all the days of our lives. Usually they are indications that we are doing something right. Erica Jong criticismmadeworld what was time but a convention, a habit of mind, a custom of dress? Erica Jong minddressestime
