652 Quotes by Erica Jong

A baby’s a full time job for three adults. Nobody tells you that when you’re pregnant, or you’d probably jump off a bridge. Nobody tells you how all-consuming it is to be a mother-how reading goes out the window and thinking too.

As a past president of the Writers Guild, I think women shouldn’t write for free. Maybe you have to do it for a time, to make a reputation, but I think the idea of giving your work away is the beginning of authors not being able to make a living.

Many people today believe that cynicism requires courage. Actually, cynicism is the height of cowardice. It is innocence and open-heartednes s that requires the true courage – however often we are hurt as a result of it.

I don’t think that sex necessarily produces intimacy.

Women tend to be preservers of the social structure, of marriage. They don’t want to upset their husbands or their significant others. They don’t want to hurt people.

People are terrified. A lot of them are in relationships that aren’t satisfying, and if you tell them they can change their life, they get really scared.

If you imagine the world listening, you’ll never write a line. That’s why privacy is so important. You should write first drafts as if they will never be shown to anyone.

Maybe marriages are best in middle age. When all the nonsense falls away and you realize you have to love one another because you’re going to die anyway.

It’s easier to write about pain than about joy. Joy is wordless.