Top 10 Erica Jong Quotes

Erica Jong
(Novelist)

A 1963 graduate of Barnard College with an MA (1965) in 18th century English Literature from Columbia University, Jong is best known for her first novel, Fear of Flying (1973), which created a sensation with its frank treatment of a woman's sexual desires. Although it contains many sexual elements, the book is mainly the account of a hypersensitive young woman, in her late twenties, trying to find who she is and where she is going. It contains many psychological, humorous, descriptive elements, and rich cultural and literary references. The book tries to answer the many conflicts arising in women in late 1960s and early 1970s America, of womanhood, femininity, love, one's quest for freedom and purpose.
Jong was born and grew up in New York City. She is the middle daughter of Seymour Mann (né Nathan Weisman, died 2004), and Eda Mirsky (1911 - 2012). Her father was a businessman of Polish Jewish ancestry who owned a gifts and home accessories company known as "one of the world's most acclaimed makers of collectible porcelain dolls". Her mother was born in England of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, was a painter and textile designer who also designed dolls for her husband's company. Jong has an elder sister, Suzanna, who married Lebanese businessman Arthur Daou, and a younger sister, Claudia, a social worker who married Gideon S. Oberweger (the chief executive officer of Seymour Mann Inc. until his death in 2006). Among her nephews is Peter Daou, who writes "The Daou Report" for salon.com.

Jong has been married four times. Her first two marriages, to college sweetheart Michael Werthman, and to Allan Jong, a Chinese American psychiatrist, reflect those of the narrator of Fear of Flying. Her third husband was Jonathan Fast, a novelist and social work educator, and son of novelist Howard Fast. This marriage was described in How to Save Your Own Life and Parachutes and Kisses. She has a daughter from her third marriage, Molly Jong-Fast. Jong is now married to Kenneth David Burrows, a New York litigation attorney. In the late 1990s, Jong wrote an article about her current marriage in the magazine Talk.

TOP 10 Erica Jong QUOTES

Perhaps all artists were, in a sense, housewives: tenders of the earth household.

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

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

Friends love misery, in fact. Sometimes, especially if we are too lucky or too successful or too pretty, our misery is the only thing that endears us to our friends.

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

I have not ceased being fearful, but I have ceased to let fear control me. I have accepted fear as a part of life--specifically the fear of change, the fear of the unknown and I have gone ahead despite the pounding in my heart that says turn back, turn back, you'll die if you venture too far.

Men and women, women and men; it will never work.

Where is Hollywood located? Chiefly between the ears. In that part of the American brain lately vacated by God. 

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

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

Jong lived for three years, 1966–69, in Heidelberg, Germany, with her second husband, on an army base. She was a frequent visitor to Venice, and wrote about that city in her novel Shylock's Daughter.In 2007, her literary archive was acquired by Columbia University in New York City.
Jong is mentioned in the Bob Dylan song "Highlands" (Time Out of Mind (1997) ). Jong supports LGBT rights and legalization of same-sex marriage and she claims that 'Gay marriage is a blessing not a curse. It certainly promotes stability and family. And it's certainly good for kids.