652 Quotes by Erica Jong

Any system was a straightjacket if you insisted on adhering to it so totally and humorlessly.

How did I get to be a grown-up? At times, I find myself still sitting on the hillside, plotting revenge against the adult world.

Young women dream of romance and passion as men dream of conquest because those dreams are necessary goads to leaving home and growing up.

You're afraid of criticism,' she says. 'But criticism is a sign of life! You know who doesn't get criticized? Nonentities! Only the dead escape criticism.

It's only when you're forbidden to talk about the future that you suddenly realize how much the future normally occupies the present, how much of daily life is usually spent making plans and attempting to control the future. Never mind that you have no control over it. The idea of the future is our greatest entertainment, amusement, and time-killer.

Because When you write about people, you inevitably offend--but if you write about animals, the evil do not recognize themselves but the good understand immediately.

Everyone has talent. What's rare is the courage to follow it to the dark places where it leads.

And what is laughter anyway? Changing the angle of vision.

As long as women are denied the priesthood, we will try to make our own rituals at our own kitchen altars and we will sew our own magical capes at our own sewing machines