I’m interested in what happens to people when they get into that publicity machine. We tend to think things have changed, but there’s still a deep sexism underlying the way women are treated publicly. – Erica Jong
There is still the feeling that women’s writing is a lesser class of writing, that what goes on in the nursery or the bedroom is not as important as what goes on in the battlefield, that what women know about is a less category of knowledge. – Erica Jong
No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks. – Erica Jong
The stones themselves are thick with history, and those cats that dash through the alleyways must surely be the ghosts of the famous dead in feline disguise. – Erica Jong
Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood. – Erica Jong
I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets. – Erica Jong
Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God. – Erica Jong
You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women, but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy. – Erica Jong
Sexism kind of predisposes us to see men’s work as more important than women’s, and it is a problem, I guess, as writers, we have to change. – Erica Jong
You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. – Erica Jong
Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads. – Erica Jong
In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving – instead of actually getting up and leaving. – Erica Jong
The problem with feminism in the second wave was that we fought so much among ourselves, and I think we did so much damage to the movement… and I think the next wave, the third wave, is women mentoring younger women and women helping younger women to enter the political process and the writing world. – Erica Jong
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
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