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What A Damnably Lonely Profession Writing Is! In Order To Do It, One Must Banish The World, And Having Banished It, One Feels Cosmically Alone.
-Erica Jong
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What A Damnably Lonely

Erica Jong
...
What A Damnably Lonely Profession Writing Is! In Order To Do It, One Must Banish The World, And Having Banished It, One Feels Cosmically Alone.

Understanding the Quote: "what a damnably lonely profession writing is! in order to do it,..."

This quote by Erica Jong reflects deeply on the theme of lonely. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Lonely, Writing, Order, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Erica Jong interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Erica Jong

Erica Jong is celebrated for insightful thoughts on lonely and writing. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Lonely
Writing
Order
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There Is Nothing Fiercer Than A Failed Artist. The Energy Remains, But, Having No Outlet, It Implodes In A Great Black Fart Of Rage Which Smokes Up All The Inner Windows Of The Soul. Horrible As Successful Artists Often Are, There Is Nothing Crueler Or More Vain Than A Failed Artist.
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Keeping A Journal Implies Hope.
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The Lives Of Great Men Are More Oft' At Variance With Their Profess'd Phillosophies Than Consistent With 'em.
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In Loving Life You Love What Can't Survive.
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The Truth Is Simple, You Do Not Die From Love. You Only Wish You Did.
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Feminism Is Really The Right Of Women To Be Full Human Beings And To Not Be Defined Only By Their Childbearing Function. Feminism Is Really The Right Of Women To Be Human Beings. That's It, Yet That's So Frightening To A Lot Of People. A Full Human Being Wants Satisfying Work And Love. A Full Human Being Is Entitled To Both, And Is Not Simply Defined By Only One Aspect Of Her Being.
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Surviving Means Being Born Over And Over.
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It's Important To Know What You're Going To Spend Your Life On, And The Only Way You're Going To Find That Is By Connecting With The Force Inside Yourself.
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It Is Not Unusual To Hate Great Writers Before We Learn To Love Them. Because They Have Created Something That Did Not Yet Exist, They Must Also Create Their Audience. Sometimes The Audience Is Not Yet Ready. Sometimes It Has Yet To Be Born.
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The Absolute Bedrock Of Our Independence Is Having Control Over Our Own Bodies. You Cannot Be Independent If The Government Or Someone Else Says Whether Or Not You Can Use Birth Control. Unless You're In Charge Of Your Body, You're Not In Charge Of Anything. I Think That's Really The Bottom Line Of Feminism.
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My Mother Wanted Me To Be Her Wings, To Fly As She Never Quite Had The Courage To Do. I Love Her For That. I Love The Fact That She Wanted To Give Birth To Her Own Wings.
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We Are Finally Driven To Monogamy Not By Morality But By Exhaustion.
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Few Women See Power As An End In Itself. The Point Of Power Is The Freedom To Cultivate Roses.
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Birth Is The Start Of Loneliness And Loneliness The Start Of Poetry.
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I See That The Greatest Thing About Getting Older Is How Your Judgment Changes And How You Come To Understand The Cycles Of Life. And You Keep Having These Amazing Flashes Of Understanding.
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I Can Live Without It All - Love With Its Blood Pump, Sex With Its Messy Hungers, Men With Their Peacock Strutting, Their Silly Sexual Baggage, Their Wet Tongues In My Ear.
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I Tried To Keep Myself Away From Him By Using Con Words Like "fidelity" And "adultery", By Telling Myself That He Would Interfere With My Work, That I Had Him I'd Be Too Happy To Write. I Tried To Tell Myself I Was Hurting Bennett, Hurting Myself, Making A Spectacle Of Myself. I Was. But Nothing Helped. I Was Possessed. The Minute He Walked Into A Room And Smiled At Me, I Was A Goner.
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Often I Find That Poems Predict What I'm Going To Do Later In My Own Writing, And Often I Find That Poems Predict My Life. So I Think Poetry Is The Most Intense Expression Of Feeling That We Have.
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Mediocre Prose Might Be Read As An Escape, Might Be Spoken On Television By Actors, Or Mouthed In Movies. But Mediocre Poetry Did Not Exist At All. If Poetry Wasn't Good, It Wasn't Poetry. It Was That Simple.
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We've Lost More Men To Homosexuality Than We Ever Did In Two World Wars.
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The Words Carry Their Own Momentum. A Confession In Motion Tends To Stay In Motion. Newton's First Law Of Jealousy.
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Venice Is Ever The Fragile Labyrinth At The Edge Of The Sea And It Reminds Us How Brief And Perilous The Journeys Of Our Lives Are; Perhaps That Is Why We Love It So. City Of Plagues And Brief Liaisons, City Of Lingering Deaths And Incendiary Loves, City Of Chimeras, Nightmares, Pigeons, Bells. You Are The Only City In The World Whose Dialect Has A Word For The Shimmer Of Canal Water Reflected On The Ceiling Of A Room.
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We've Shown Again And Again, In Every Un Report On The Status Of Women, That Wherever Women Control Their Own Bodies And Have Access To Education, Societies Prosper. Men's Fortunes Go Up, Children's Fortunes Go Up. This Is Not News - It's Been Proven Repeatedly. Anywhere Those Things Are Threatened, We Have To Defend Them.
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Never Joke With The Press. Irony Does Not Translate Into Newsprint.
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If We Don't Risk Anything, We Risk Even More.
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What Was Time But A Convention, A Habit Of Mind, A Custom Of Dress?
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Every Country Gets The Circus It Deserves. Spain Gets Bullfights. Italy The Church. America Hollywood.
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I Thought Of The Nameless Inventor Of The Bathtub. I Was Somehow Sure It Was A Woman. And Was The Inventor Of The Bathtub Plug A Man?
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Without The Gods, How Would I Sing?' I Asked. With Your Own Voice,' He Said.
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At Fifty The Madwoman In The Attic Breaks Loose, Stomps Down The Stairs, And Sets Fire To The House. She Won't Be Imprisoned Anymore.
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Writing
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My Grandchildren Are Fabulous And Funny.
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Memory Is The Most Transient Of All Possessions. And When It Goes, It Leaves As Few Traces As Stars That Have Disappeared.
Stars
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Friend Love
Faith Is The Knowledge Of The Heart, Logick The Knowledge Of The Mind.
Faith
Heart
Mind
Jealousy Is All The Fun You Think They Had.
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Jealousy
Fun
Men Must Be Stripped Of Arrogance And Women Must Become Independent For Any Mutually Nurturing Alliance To Endure Between The Sexes.
Sex
Independent
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You Can't Be Creative And Still Be A Good Girl.
Girl
Creative
Stills
Creativity Demands Nothing Less Than All You Have. Talent Alone Is Never Enough.
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Demand
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Advice Is What We Ask For When We Already Know The Answer But Wish We Didn't.
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Home Is Where Your Books Are.
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Dirt
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Hands
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Reading
Profound
As A Seasoned Insomniac, I Knew Sometimes The Way To Beat Sleeplessness Was To Outwit It: To Pretend You Didn't Care About Sleeping. Then Sometimes Sleep Became Piqued, Like A Rejected Lover, And Crept Up To Try To Seduce You.
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Trying
Bed
Women Really Must Have Equal Pay For Equal Work, Equality In Work At Home, And Reproductive Choices. Men Must Press For These Things Also. They Must Cease To See Them As "women's Issues" And Learn That They Are Everyone's Issues - Essential To Survival On Planet Earth.
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Men
I Write Slowly By Hand. Publishing Is Effectively Bankrupt For You Unless You Are Danielle Steele. It Takes A Year To Write Book And Advances Are Going Down Or Disappearing.
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Hands
O What Is It About Having One's Own Babe Upon One's Hip That Makes A Woman Wish To Go Home To Her Mother? A Desire To Say: 'look, The Circle Is Compleat'? A Desire To Say: 'look, I Have Cross'd The Divide And Now Am More Like You'? A Desire To Say: 'look, This Babe I Offer You Is My Most Precious Gift'?
Mother
Home
Circles
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.
Marriage
People
Trying
My Generation Had Doris Day As A Role Model, Then Gloria Steinem--then Princess Diana. We Are The Most Confused Generation.
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Princess
Role Models
I Have Not Ceased Being Fearful, But I Have Ceased To Let Fear Control Me.
Fear
Fear And Courage
Fearful
I Have Lived My Life According To This Principle: If I'm Afraid Of It, Then I Must Do It.
Inspirational
Principles
Ifs
As Yet We Use Our Media Only For Selling Things - Including, Of Course, Political Candidates. What Will Happen When Someone Masters The Art Of Selling Souls?
Art
Media
Selling Things
People In The Land Of Lala Look Like Expensive Wax Fruit. And They Work Hard To Achieve That Look.
Hard Work
Land
People
Genius Is A Strong Aphrodisiac.
Strong
Genius
Aphrodisiac
I Understand That Unless You Have A Government Of Laws, Rather Than A Government Of People, You Cannot Protect Dissent. And I Understand, As A Woman Who Probably Would Have Been Burned In The Marketplace For Witchcraft Only About 200 Years Ago, That I Need The First Amendment More Than Anybody Does. And That Even If I Am Repelled By Child Pornography Or Bob Guccione's Productions, That I Have To Protect Those Things, Because Essentially It's In My Self-interest To Do So.
Children
Government
Self
I Have Enormous Pride In The Survival Of The Jewish People, The Cultural Heritage Of The Jewish People, But I'm Not Observant, And I Don't Belong To A Synagogue. I Don't Go To Temple On High Holy Days, But I'm Proud To Be Jewish.
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People
Exceptional People Are Often Called Crazy By The Ordinary World.
Crazy
Ordinary World
People
Not Everybody Has To Be A Parent. In Fact, In An Overpopulated World Where Our Resources Are Shrinking, It Would Be Wonderful If People Who Didn't Want Children Felt Free To Say So. In The 1970s, There Was More Tolerance For The Idea That Not Everybody Needs To Be A Biological Parent.
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Writers Are Always At The Edge Of The Inferno, And The Fire Is Licking At Our Toes. Luckily, This Turns Us On!
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Licking
Toes
I Have Forgotten My Rave Reviews And Memorized My Vicious Ones - Like Most Writers.
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Vicious
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Energy
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Beware Of The Man Who Denounces Psychiatrists; / He Is Afraid.
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Psychiatry
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Oxygen
Giving
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Expecting
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Women
Men
I Actually Think Leaving Your Children Alone To Fantasize, To Write, To Make Projects On Their Own Is Good For Them. Breathing Down Their Necks Is A Form Of Control. Children Should Have Their Own Space.
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Thinking
In Freeing Myself From The Romantic Dream Of Finding Another Man To Come Along And Rescue Me, I Learned That No One Can Rescue Me Except Myself.
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Men
Independence
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Enough
Revelations
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Husband
People
I Knew I Was In England By The Smell.
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England
Nothing You Write Is Ever Lost To You. At Some Other Level Your Mind Is Working On It.
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Mind
Levels
Perhaps Every Generation Thinks Of Itself As A Lost Generation And Perhaps Every Generation Is Right.
Thinking
Generations
Lost
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Mother
Aunt
Grandfather
Most Sex Doesn't Really Bring People Together. You Have To Reach A Certain Level Of Connection, I Think, And That's Pretty Rare.
Sex
Thinking
People
Solitude Is Un-american.
Solitude
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War
Practice
People
I Want You. I Want You. I Want You. Anything To Avoid Saying: I Love You.
Love You
Want
Say I Love You
We Are So Scared Of Being Judged That We Look For Every Excuse To Procrastinate.
Fear
Procrastination
Looks
And The Trouble Is, If You Don't Risk Anything, You Risk Even More.
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Inspirational
Life
Writers Do Not Choose Their Subjects; Their Subjects Choose Them.
Subjects
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.
Mother
Baby
Jobs
As Women Got Little Crumbs Of Power, Men Began To Act Paranoid - As If We'd Disabled Them Utterly. Do All Women Have To Keep Silent For Men To Speak? Do All Women Have To Be Legless For Men To Walk?
Men
Littles
Speak
I Don't Think That I Had Any Idea That 'fear Of Flying' Would Become A Part Of The Culture. I Had No Idea That It Would Go All Over The World And Be Published In Chinese And Serbo-croat And So On.
Thinking
Ideas
Flying
There Is Simply No Dignified Way For A Woman To Live Alone. Oh, She Can Get Along Financially Perhaps (though Not Nearly As Well As A Man), But Emotionally She Is Never Left In Peace. Her Friends, Her Family, Her Fellow Workers Never Let Her Forget That Her Husbandlessness, Her Childlessness - Her Selfishness, In Short - Is A Reproach To The American Way Of Life.
Peace
Men
Selfishness
It's Hard To Do Fiction And Nonfiction Simultaneously.
Fiction
Fiction And Nonfiction
Nonfiction
Allow Me To Put The Record Straight. I Am Forty-six And Have Been For Some Years Past.
Funny
Witty
Past
We All Have Fantasies About Sex That Are More Perfect Than Anything In Reality.
Sex
Reality
Perfect
Women Are Not The Richer Sex. Women Are Not Equal In Society.
Sex
Equal
The Soul Is Awakened Through Service.
Life
Spiritual
Soul
Betrayal Betrays The Betrayer.
Betrayal
Betrayed
Betray
The Trick Is Not How Much Pain You Feel--but How Much Joy You Feel. Any Idiot Can Feel Pain. Life Is Full Of Excuses To Feel Pain, Excuses Not To Live, Excuses, Excuses, Excuses.
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Hurt
Pain
The Sexuality Doesn't End. It Really Doesn't. You're Sexual Your Whole Life, If You're A Sexual Person.
Sexuality
Ends
Whole Life
If You Don't Have Time To Do It Right You Must Have Time To Do It Right You Must Have Time To Do It Over. If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, How Do You Know When You Get There? If You Don't Risk Anything, You Risk Even More.
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Where You Are
Knows
Is There No Villain In This World Who Doth Not Regard Himself As A Poor Abus'd Innocent, No She-wolf Who Doth Not Think Herself A Lamb, No Shark Who Doth Not Fancy That She Is A Goldfish?
Thinking
Sharks
Fancy
It Is A Sad Paradox That When Male Authors Impersonate Women ... They Are Said To Be Dealing With 'cosmic, Major Concerns' - But When We Impersonate Ourselves We Are Said To Be Writing 'women's Fiction' Or 'women's Poetry.
Writing
Males
Fiction
A Concern With 'public Morality' Is - If Not The Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel - The First Foray Of The Fascist.
Lasts
Firsts
Morality
Where Is Hollywood Located? Chiefly Between The Ears. In That Part Of The American Brain Lately Vacated By God.
Funny
God
California
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.
Writing
Thinking
Who I Am
The Future Is Merely A Shadow Which Blocks Out The Joys Of The Present And Emphasizes The Miseries Of The Past.
Block
Past
Joy
It's Easier To Write About Pain Than About Joy. Joy Is Wordless.
Pain
Writing
Joy
The Most Important Education You Get Is Your Own - The One You Learn In Solitude.
Meditation
Solitude
Important
Pleasure Is Terrifying Because It Breaks Down The Boundaries Between People. Embracing Passion Means Living With Fear.
Sex
Mean
Passion
At Times It Is Strangely Sedative To Know The Extent Of Your Own Powerlessness.
Knows
Powerlessness
The Body Is Wiser Than Its Inhabitants. The Body Is The Soul. The Body Is God’s Messenger.
Soul
Mind
Body
There Is Still The Feeling That Women's Writing Is A Lesser Class Of Writing, That What Goes On In The Nursery Or The Bedroom Is Not As Important As What Goes On In The Battlefield, That What Women Know About Is A Less Category Of Knowledge.
Writing
Class
Feelings
I Have Ne'er Been In A Chamber With A Lawyer When I Did Not Wish Either To Scream With Desperation Or Else Fall Into The Deepest Of Sleeps, E'en When The Matter Concern'd My Own Future Most Profoundly.
Fall
Sleep
Wish
Eating Is Never So Simple As Hunger.
Simple
Hunger
Eating
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.
Writing
Past
Thinking
We Need Quiet Time To Examine Our Lives Openly And Honestly...spending Quiet Time Alone Gives Your Mind An Opportunity To Renew Itself And Create Order.- Susan Taylor--everyone Has A Talent. What Is Rare Is The Courage To Nurture It In Solitude And To Follow The Talent To The Dark Places Where It Leads.
Dark
Opportunity
Order
Beware Of The Man Who Praises Women's Liberation; He Is About To Quit His Job.
Jobs
Work
Women
No One Ever Found Wisdom Without Also Being A Fool.
Wisdom
Fool
Found
My Reaction To Porno Films Is As Follows: After The First Ten Minutes, I Want To Go Home And Screw. After The First Twenty Minutes, I Never Want To Screw Again As Long As I Live.
Sex
Home
Long
Writing Is One Of The Few Professions Left Where You Take All The Responsibility For What You Do. It's Really Dangerous And Ultimately Destroys You As A Writer If You Start Thinking About Responses To Your Work Or What Your Audience Needs.
Writing
Responsibility
Thinking
In A Way Women Are Fleshier Because Of Estrogen. It's Hard For Us To Lose Weight Because When We Get Super Skinny We Don't Ovulate. Women In Camps During The Holocaust Didn't Menstruate And Didn't Ovulate. They Were Starving; They Were Terrified. Why Emulate That Condition? It's Nonsensical To Me.
Holocaust
Weight
Way
Beware Of Books. They Are More Than Innocent Assemblages Of Paper And Ink And String And Glue. If They Are Any Good, They Have The Spirit Of The Author Within. Authors Are Rogues And Ruffians And Easy Lays. They Are Gluttons For Sweets And Savories. They Devour Life And Always Want More. They Have Sap, Spirit, Sex. Books Are Panderers. The Jews Are Not Wrong To Worship Books. A Real Book Has Pheromones And Sprouts Grass Through Its Cover.
Sweet
Sex
Real
The Worst Thing About Jealousy Is How Low It Makes You Reach.
Inspirational
Lows
Worst
Ambivalence Is A Wonderful Tune To Dance To. It Has A Rhythm All Its Own.
Inspirational
Dance
Tunes
When I Was A Ten-year Old Bookworm And Used To Kiss The Dust Jacket Pictures Of Authors As If They Were Icons, It Used To Amaze Me That These Remote People Could Provoke Me To Love.
Kissing
Dust
Years
If There's Anything The World Disdains More Than Uppity Young Women, It's Uppity Old Women. Dying Young Has Always Been A Woman's Best Career Move.
Moving
Careers
Dying
People Always Think That History Proceeds In A Straight Line. It Doesn't. Social Attitudes Don't Change In A Straight Line. There's Always A Backlash Against Progressive Ideas.
Attitude
Thinking
Ideas
Love Is Love, But Marriage Is An Investment.
Love Is
Investment
A Soul Is Partly Given, Partly Wrought; Remember Always That You Are The Maker Of Your Own Soul.
Soul
Remember
Makers
She Was Mine And Not-mine All At Once. She Was The Most Beautiful Thing I Had Ever Seen And The Most Terrifying.
Beautiful
Birth
Beautiful Things
What I Would Like To Give My Daughter Is Freedom. And This Is Something That Must Be Given By Example, Not Exhortation. Freedom Is A Loose Leash, License To Be Different From Your Mother And Still Be Loved...freedom Is...not Insisting That Your Daughter Share Your Limitations. Freedom Also Means Letting Your Daughter Reject You When She Needs To And Come Back When She Needs To. Freedom Is Unconditional Love.
Daughter
Mother
Mean
It Was The Old Psychosomatic Side-step. Everyone In My Family Dances It At Every Opportunity. You've Given Me A Splitting Headache! You've Given Me Indigestion! You've Given Me Crotch Rot! You've Given Me Auditory Hallucinations! You've Given Me A Heart Attack! You've Given Me Cancer!
Family
Cancer
Heart
I Know So Many Women In Their Fifties, Sixties And Seventies Who Delight In Being On Their Own. It's Amazing. They Don't See Any Stigma Attached To It. We Don't Need A Man To Prove Our Identity Anymore.
Men
Identity
Needs
Motherhood Cannot Finally Be Delegated. Breast-feeding May Succumb To The Bottle; Cuddling, Fondling, And Paediatric Visits May Also Be Done By Fathers...but When A Child Needs A Mother To Talk To, Nobody Else But A Mother Will Do.
Mom
Mother
Children
The Only Difference Between Men And Women Is That Women Are Able To Create New Little Human Beings In Their Bodies While Simultaneously Writing Books, Driving Tractors, Working In Offices, Planting Crops - In General, Doing Everything Men Do.
Book
Writing
Men
I Am Not Sure If Love Is A Salve Or Just A Deeper Kind Of Wound.
Love Is
Kind
Not Sure
I Look Forward And See Myself Look Back.
Looks
Sex And Creativity Are Often Seen By Dictators As Subversive Activities.
Sex
Creativity
Dictator
Spring, / You Are A Pinking Shears: You Cut / Fresh Edges On The World.
Spring
Cutting
World
Perhaps All Artists Were, In A Sense, Housewives: Tenders Of The Earth Household.
Artist
Earth
Housewife
I Think Men Have Always Been Afraid Of Women's Sexuality, And The Restrictions They Put On Women Testify To That.
Men
Thinking
Sexuality
What Are The Sources Of Poetry? Love And Death And The Paradox Of Love And Death. All Poetry From The Beginning Is About Eros And Thanatos. Those Are The Only Subjects. And How Eros And Thanatos Interweave.
Love And Death
Paradox
Love Poetry
Compose With Utter Freedom And Edit With Utter Discipline.
Discipline
Edits
Back In The Days When Men Were Hunters And Chest Beaters And Women Spent Their Whole Lives Worrying About Pregnancy Or Dying In Childbirth, They Often Had To Be Taken Against Their Will. Men Complained That Women Were Cold, Unresponsive, Frigid... They Wanted Their Women Wanton. They Wanted Their Women Wild. Now Women Were Finally Learning To Be Wanton And Wild - And What Happened? The Men Wilted.
Women
Pregnancy
Taken
I Hope We Don't Have To Keep Going Back Over The Same Territory And Winning The Same Rights Over And Over Again. The Battle For Birth Control. The Battle For Abortion. The Parity Of Women's Health. It's Very Depressing To Think That You Win These Rights, But Then You Have To Win Them Again, And Again, And Again, And Fight The Same Battles Over And Over.
Depressing
Fighting
Winning
I'm Not Classically Pretty; I've Always Been Too Heavy; I've Had Thyroid Disease And It's Very Hard For Me To Lose Weight - But I've Always Had Men Pursue Me. I've Always Had That 'it' Thing. God Knows Why. Maybe It's Pheromones, I Don't Know.
Men
Pheromones
Weight
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