652 Quotes by Erica Jong

[Henry Miller] was such a scribomaniac that even when he lived in the same house as Lawrence Durrell they often exchanged letters. For most of his life, Henry wrote literally dozens of letters a day to people he could have easily engaged in conversation - and did. The writing process, in short, was essential. As it is to all real writers, writing was life and breath to him. He put out words as a tree puts out leaves.

Poems, like dreams, are a sort of royal road to the unconscious. They tell you what your secret self cannot express.

We find our calling or it finds us, and it's a sin against the fates not to use your talent when you have it.

Women's books are kind of discriminated against. If a man writes a book about his family stories, people think of it as literature. If it's a woman, she's 'spilling her guts,' and it's not art.

The dilemma is that if one does not risk anything one risks even more.

Famous people complain about fame, but they never want to give it back, myself included.

A new dog never replaces an old dog, it merely expands the heart.

We write poems / as leaves give oxygen - / so we can breathe.

If we don't risk anything, we risk even more.