Erica Jong

The soul is awakened through service.

Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.

And the trouble is if you don't risk anything you risk even more.

I write lustily and humorously. It isn't calculated it's the way I think. I've invented a writing style that expresses who I am.

There are no atheists on turbulent airplanes.

All writing problems are psychological problems. Blocks usually stem from the fear of being judged. 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.

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.

If every day I dare to remember that I am here on loan that this house this hillside these minutes are all leased to me not given I will never despair.

I went for years not finishing anything. Because of course when you finish something you can be judged.... I had poems which were rewritten so many times I suspect it was just a way of avoiding sending them out.

Bigamy is having one husband too many. Monogamy is the same.

I know some good marriages-marriages where both people are just trying to get through their days by helping each other being good to each other.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't.

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. ...

Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent to the dark place where it leads.

It takes courage to lead a life. Any life.

I stand in the mist and cry, thinking of myself standing in the mist and crying, and wondering if I will ever be able to use this experience in a book.

Nothing quite has reality for me till I write it all down--revising and embellishing as I go. I'm always waiting for things to be over so I can get home and commit them to paper.

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....