Erica Quotes

Have you considered - between now and any future leg-shackling, that is - the possibility of spending some time not running things?" "Oh, I do," she said earnestly. "Twice daily! I try very hard not to run things in my sleep, nor whilst cleaning my teeth. Far too difficult to bark orders with tooth powder in one's mouth. ~ Erica Ridley

What storyteller is adequate to her story? The story carries us along, bottles on the tide, each with our secret mesage and the fervent hope that it does not turn out to be blank. ~ Erica Jong

Underneath it all, you longed to be annihilated by love ... ~ Erica Jong

What you've done isn't the only thing that defines who you are. Words are just as powerful as action. They can aspire action in others, can't they? ~ Erica Crouch

But I am wise if not yet quite old, wanting the poem more than the lover, wanting words more than the sticky dew men secrete in their private places. ~ Erica Jong

The Lord has put more hardships atop the shoulders of my neighbors - more than I can even fathom coping with. I will strive to find a way to turn pity into admiration, for what use is it to send pity back at the world. Admiration and awe are much more helpful, especially when I find myself feeling like a victim for being stuck in traffic or losing my favorite sweater. Perspective is a blessing. ~ Erica Goros

I suddenly thought back to a time when I was crying on the playground in first grade. We'd all been working on an art project and I was put on a team with Chelsea, her neighbor Erica, and a girl named Mary Jo Myers. We were all supposed to work together, but the three of them cut me out completely, acting like I wasn't even there. If I spoke, they ignored me. If I tried to do something, they pulled it out of my reach. I was in tears by the time we broke for recess, sure nobody in the world liked me. ~ Stephanie Faris

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

Many, many people have done a lot more sexual experimentation than I have. ~ Erica Jong

Glitch or not, we seem to need a power greater than ourselves. We seem to need enormous shadows of divinity stalking us. We know we are weak. Alcoholics are, above all, lonely, fearful pepole who make a fetish of loneliness, who think they
we
are too good to be part of the human race. And we have to be humbled to remember who we are
stumbling human beings, more ape than angel. ~ Erica Jong

From the second Edmund burst into the ceremony, she'd no longer wanted to be a duchess.
She just wanted Edmund.
Seeing his face had been like being flooded with magic. He was sunshine and sultry nights.
Laughter and sensuous kisses. The other half of her heart. ~ Erica Ridley

Sadly, because of the enormous gap between rich and poor, some mothers can afford helpers, but many can't. Those who can would be kinder to refrain from criticizing other women. ~ Erica Jong

He backpedaled hard. "Whatever you've planned is fine with me, Erica. I appreciate your efforts; I always do." True enough. She may be a domineering harpy on occasion, but she was his domineering harpy, and didn't everyone need a bit of domineering harpy in their lives? They made things run much smoother. Nothing provided motivation quite like having her tiny, spike-heeled shoe up his ass. ~ Eden Winters

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. ~ Erica Jong

You are always naked when you start writing; you are always as if you had never written anything before; you are always a beginner. Shakespeare wrote without knowing he would become Shakespeare ~ Erica Jong

K.T. stops dead in her tracks, her eyes locked on Horace's car.
"Holy crap," she mutters, eyes wide. "Is that a '69 Camaro SS?"
I glance back at her as I unlock the door. "Yeah. You know cars?"
She shakes her head, her lips trembling. "Just this one."
Her reaction is too strong to be normal. People don't usually get choked up at the sight of a car. There's something about this car specifically that freaks her out.
It takes a second for her to smile, but she forces the expression onto her face. "It's my sister's favorite car. ~ Erica Cameron

I will always come for you. ~ Erica Stevens

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. ~ Erica Jong

I've not ceased being fearful, I've gone ahead despite the pounding in my heart that says: turn back, turn back, you'll die if you go too far. ~ Erica Jong

No one is only good or only bad. We have a bit of both inside of us all. ~ Erica Crouch

Humor is one of the most serious tools we have for dealing with impossible situations. ~ Erica Jong

As a lady of clocklike precision yourself, you may appreciate my schedule. I have kept strictly to it every day for the past decade. From eight in the morning to eight in the evening, I devote myself to my duties. Then from eight in the evening to eight in the morning, I . . . do . . . not. ~ Erica Ridley

I'm interested in what happens to people when they get into that publicity machine. We tend to think things have changed, but there's still a deep sexism underlying the way women are treated publicly. ~ Erica Jong

Every morning," he said softly, his breath caressing her cheek. "You were my only thought." He tilted closer. "Every night, you were my only thought." His lips brushed her cheekbone. "Every moment of every day, you were my only thought. ~ Erica Ridley

I had forgotten how awful it was to be a woman alone
the leering glances, the catcalls, the offers of help which you dared not accept for fear of incurring a sexual debt. The awful sense of vulnerability. No wonder I had gone from man to man and always wound up married. How could I have left Bennett? How could I have forgotten? ~ Erica Jong

Irreversible decisions are good for the soul, word lady. ~ Erica Bauermeister

Stop brooding. Or at least if you're gonna continue, don't sit so close to that cactus. You're bumming the both of us out. See? Its tiny little cock has gone limp."

The magazine slides to the floor as I turn my head to see the sorry-looking cactus behind the couch. What Eric is referring to as its penis hangs limp on the 'body' like it always has. ~ Erica Pike

Beware of the man who denounces psychiatrists; / he is afraid. ~ Erica Jong

The perfect man is the true partner. Not a bed partner nor a fun partner, but a man who will shoulder burdens equally with you and possess that quality of joy. ~ Erica Jong

After all, sisters didn't die, did they? ~ Erica James

This." He seized hold of her hand and pressed it over his still heart. "There are times I can almost feel this actually beating for you. You have owned it since the moment I saw you. It may have taken me a while to come to that realization, but it's true, and there is nothing, nothing that is going to change that. Not blood and not sex. You were made for me Aria. ~ Erica Stevens

Pregnancy seemed like a tremendous abdication of control. Something growing inside you which would eventually usurp your life. ~ Erica Jong

Writing has often been accompanied by terror, silences, and then wild bursts of private laughter that suddenly make all the dread seem worthwhile. ~ Erica Jong

Isabelle had always thought of her mind as a garden, a magical place to play as a child, when the grown-ups were having conversations and she was expected to listen politely-- and even, although she hated to admit this, later with Edward, her husband, when listening to the particularities of his carpet salesmanship wore her thin. Every year the garden grew larger, the paths longer and more complicated. Meadows of memories.

Of course, her mental garden hadn't always been well tended. There were the years when the children were young, fast-moving periods when life flew by without time for the roots of deep reflection, and yet she knew memories were created whether one pondered them or not. She had always considered that one of the luxuries of growing older would be the chance to wander through the garden that had grown while she wasn't looking. She would sit on a bench and let her mind take every path, tend every moment she hadn't paid attention to, appreciate the juxtaposition of the one memory against another. ~ Erica Bauermeister

Her splendid inner glow had always resided within her, and it was one of the most exquisite things he had ever encountered. ~ Erica Stevens

The Lives of Great Men are more oft' at variance with their profess'd Phillosophies than consistent with 'em ... ~ Erica Jong

In a sane world, love and sex would not divide by gender. We could love like and unlike beings, love them for a variety of reasons. The battered adjectives for homosexuality
queer, lesbian, gay
would disappear and we would only have people making love in different ways, with different body parts. We are too far gone with overpopulation to insist that procreation be an immutable part of desire. Desire needs only itself, not the proof of a baby. We would do well to baby each other instead of making all these unwanted babies that no one has time to nurture or to love.
At this point in my life, I am blessed by my friendships with women. I make no distinction between my gay and straight women friends. I hat the very terms, feeling that any of us could be anything
if we were to unlock the full range of possibilities within. ~ Erica Jong

She turned to him with wide, shocked eyes. "Why did he..."
His lips twitched. No coarse language in front of the infants limited the ability to discuss the fountain of baby piss that had just arced halfway across the room.
"Twasn't you, darling. It's one of their favorite bath-time games.
"Something about the cool air on their naked...berries," he substituted at the last second....
"Do I have piddle in my hair?" she whispered, her eyes sparkling with laughter above her flushed cheeks.
"Not much," he assured her with a straight face. "You look almost becoming."...
"Decades from now, when our children ask how I fell in love with their mother, I'll say 'twas her sweet, gentle compliments during bath-time, and her fleetness of foot whilst dodging a flow of --- ~ Erica Ridley

There's another part of getting older that's just wonderful. Which is you see the way the stories turn out with peoples' lives. ~ Erica Jong

She lives as if she is constantly on the brink of some great fulfillment. As if she were waiting for Prince Charming to take her away "from all this". All what? The solitude of living inside her own soul? The certainty of being herself instead of half of something else? ~ Erica Jong

We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could. ~ Erica Bauermeister

We are finally driven to monogamy not by morality but by exhaustion. ~ Erica Jong

The worst part, he realized as he destroyed first one vampire, and then another, was that he didn't care. He welcomed it, embraced it, and relished in the death around him as it briefly calmed his tormented spirit. ~ Erica Stevens

Poetry is the language we speak in the most terrifying or ecstatic passages of our lives. But the very word poetry scares people. They think of their grade school teachers reciting 'Hiawatha' and they groan. ~ Erica Jong

A DOZEN PHALLACIES WOMEN BUY
Phallacy 3.
If you use your power to support a man, he'll always support you.
Truth
Alas, not true. It's wonderful to stand by your man, to give to the one you love, but you must never forget yourself, and your children, since he may. Being a man, he takes for granted that his needs come first. Being a woman, you take that for granted too. Don't. Protect yourself -- not with feminist rhetoric or argument, but with actions. A bank account and real estate in your own name, money put aside for your kids' education that he can't touch (or give to the next -- younger -- wife and her spawn), a profession of your own to rely on. Above all, empower yourself, and then help empower him if it pleases you to do so. ~ Erica Jong

When a couple came to class together, it meant something else entirely - food as a solution, a diversion, or, occasionally, a playground. ~ Erica Bauermeister

What all the ads and whorescopes seemed to imply was that if only you took proper care of your smells, your hair, your boobs, your eyelashes, your armpits, your crotch, your stars, your scars, your choice of Scotch in bars - you would meet a beautiful powerful, potent, and rich man who would satisfy every longing, fill every hole, make your heart skip a beat (or stand still), make you misty, and fly you to the moon (preferably on gossamer wings), where you would live totally satisfied forever. ~ Erica Jong

Justice is about making them pay for [her] pain. Revenge is making them pay for yours. ~ Erica O'Rourke

I'm not interested in competing with anyone. I hope we all make it. ~ Erica Cook

she died of internal weeping ~ Erica Jong

We share a bond. We do everything together. We have a piece of strong, invisible thread connecting us. It's indestructible – it can never be broken. The thread is the key item that links us together. We understand each other. ~ Erica Sehyun Song

Every time women make tremendous strides, the right wing gets terrified and creates laws making it hard to get an abortion or birth control. ~ Erica Jong

I believe I belong to the last literary generation, the last generation, that is, for whom books are a religion. ~ Erica Jong

I don't think there's just one person for everyone. It would be very hard for me to be with a guy who was not bright or funny. And he'd have to see the absurdities of the world, not exactly as I see them necessarily. ~ Erica Jong

Growing up female in America. What a liability! You grew up with your ears full of cosmetic ads, love songs, advice columns, whoreoscopes, Hollywood gossip, and moral dilemmas on the level of TV soap operas. What litanies the advertisers of the good life chanted at you! What curious catechisms! ~ Erica Jong

The results of the irrevocable decisions in her life, the commitments she had leaped into without thought, with only the sure and perfect knowledge that it mattered not where her feet landed because her heart was certain.
p 186 ~ Erica Bauermeister

Maybe your mind won't remember what I cooked last week, but your body will. ~ Erica Bauermeister

There is a rhythm to the ending ... ~ Erica Jong

We find our calling or it finds us, and it's a sin against the fates not to use your talent when you have it. ~ Erica Jong

It is for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write. ~ Erica Jong

I find myself wondering how many other memories are hidden from me in the recesses of my own brain; indeed my own brain will seem to be the last great terra incognita, and I will be filled with wonder at the prospect of some day discovering new worlds there. Imagine the lost continent of Atlantis and all the submerged islands of childhood right there waiting to be found. The inner space we have never adequately explored. The worlds within worlds within worlds. And the marvelous thing is that they are waiting for us. If we fail to discover them, it is only because we haven't yet built the right vehicle - spaceship or submarine or poem - which will take us to them.
It's for this, partly, that I write. How can I know what I think unless I see what I write? My writing is the submarine or spaceship which takes me to the unknown worlds within my head. And the adventure is endless and inexhaustible. If I learn to build the right vehicle, then I can discover even more territories. And each new poem is a new vehicle, designed to delve a little deeper (or fly a little higher) than the one before. ~ Erica Jong

Erica, I love you. I never knew you before you had these scars, but that doesn't mean I won't spend my entire life trying to erase them from the inside out … Everyone has scars, Erica. Don't for a second think yours are any different based on how you got them. I love you - scars and all. ~ Aly Martinez

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. ~ Erica Jong

What we remember lacks the hard edge of fact. To help us along we create little fictions, highly subtle and individual scenarios which clarify and shape our experience. The remembered event becomes a fiction, a structure made to accommodate certain feelings. This is obvious to me. If it weren't for these structures, art would be too personal for the artist to create, much less for the audience to grasp. Even film, the most literal of all the arts, is edited. - Jerzy Kosinski ~ Erica Jong

I have often plotted my great escape to the beach. To live seaside and to be able to stare possibility and tranquility in the face every day ... I wanted it bad enough to taste. All the while forgetting, I can lap underneath an open sky at any moment and feel awe rush over me. I can bring it close to me like a blanket - if I only remember He is my rest and refuge. ~ Erica Goros

He shook his head and raked his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry, Erica, but I'm going to fix this. I promise."
I nodded, trusting he would.

Said by Blake to Erica ~ Meredith Wild

But at the bottom of all the gloom, there is a sense that we are responsible for each other
if not for each other's happiness. There is empathy, admiration, respect for the other's intelligence and honesty. ~ Erica Jong

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. ~ Erica Jong

The body is wiser than its inhabitants. the body is the soul. the body is god's messenger. ~ Erica Jong

What I would like to give my daughter is freedom. And this is something that must be given by example, not by exhortation. ~ Erica Jong

Most sex is not really intimate. ~ Erica Jong

Each one an antidote to the one that went before. Each one a reaction, an about-face, a rebound. ~ Erica Jong

I allowed my heart to dance for you and still you broke its legs. ~ Erica Alex

I knew that it was impossible for us to be kept apart for too long. ~ Erica Sehyun Song

I dislike this waistcoat."
He raised his brows. "What's wrong with it?"
"You're still wearing it. ~ Erica Ridley

In poetry you can express almost inexpressible feelings. You can express the pain of loss, you can express love. People always turn to poetry when someone they love dies, when they fall in love. ~ Erica Jong

Much of the Kama Sutra is like origami; I don't quite understand all the bending that needs to happen. ~ Erica Goros

I think men have always been afraid of women's sexuality, and the restrictions they put on women testify to that. ~ Erica Jong

Young people never believe in the possibility of their own deaths. That's one reason old men can send them to war. ~ Erica Jong

We all have fantasies about sex that are more perfect than anything in reality. ~ Erica Jong

Mothers and daughters
it's a comedy, but also a tragedy. We fill our daughters with all the chutzpah we wish for ourselves. We want them to be free as we were not. And then we resent them for being so free. We resent them for being what we have made! With granddaughters, it's so much easier. And great-granddaughters. ~ Erica Jong

Fear is a sign-usually a sign that I'm doing something right. ~ Erica Jong

Alone is how our story starts. But then I came along and changed all that. ~ Erica Lorraine Scheidt

A man assumes that a woman's refusal is just part of a game. Or, at any rate, a lot of men assume that. When a man says no, it's no. When a woman says no, it's yes, or at least maybe. There is even a joke to that effect. And little by little, women begin to believe in this view of themselves. ~ Erica Jong

What you fuel your body with is pretty crucial to how you perform. ~ Erica Enders-Stevens

I could use some mercy right now, Lord.

(The Bounty Hunter's Baby) ~ `Erica Vetsch

Him. I sped home, calling her phone repeatedly only to hear her voicemail time after time. I barreled through the front door, half expecting to find Erica there. But the house was quiet and dark. I went to the kitchen, explored every room on ~ Meredith Wild

She had tried to explain to all of them that she hadn't been abused, that it was only her heart that had been maimed, but none of them believed her. She supposed it didn't help that she was more like the walking dead than a living person since her return. She most certainly wasn't the same girl that had been taken from the woods, and they blamed the prince for that. They ~ Erica Stevens

A new dog never replaces an old dog, it merely expands the heart. ~ Erica Jong

When Marion had been a teenager, she wanted a tattoo. As an oldest child who did mostly what was expected of her, she had been fascinated by the abandon tattoos implied, the willing, blind leap into commitment. ~ Erica Bauermeister

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. ~ Erica Jong

Whoever pushes America's sex button must be prepared for sirens and alarms. Whatever else we do in our lives will be drowned out by them. ~ Erica Jong

But we [women] are only at the beginning [of revamping feminism]. And our strictures on each other prove this. Our enforcement of thinness, of non-sexuality, of 'good' feminism versus 'bad' feminism, are proofs of our being at the beginning, not the end of a process. That younger feminists are embracing their sexuality is a sign of hope
a sign that women's lives will some day be less constricted, less fearful of the dark side of creativity (to which Eros provides the key). If that happens, we will at least have the full gamut of inspiration so long denied us. We will have access to all parts of ourselves
all the animals within us, from wolf to lamb. When we learn to love all the animals within us, we will know how to make men love them too. ~ Erica Jong

The truth is simple, you do not die from love. You only wish you did. ~ Erica Jong

Masquerades are frivolous, scandalous - " "Scandalous?" "People in costume lose their minds completely. The 'ladies,' if there are any, have been known to be free with their favors and dampen their gowns to make them more transparent - " "I did bring a bowl of water, in case you wished to blend with the masses. ~ Erica Ridley

Don't be afraid to get wet, you see, for what comes from rain but newness and growth and blooms? ~ Erica Alex

Few women see power as an end in itself. The point of power is the freedom to cultivate roses. ~ Erica Jong

Perhaps it is because Venice is both liquid and solid, both air and stone, that it somehow combines all the elements crucial to make our imaginations ignite and turn fantasies into realities. ~ Erica Jong

The best beauty advice I ever received is to keep skin hydrated and limit harsh exposure to the sun. If you are set on the tanned look, there are plenty of great creams that will give you a healthy-looking glow. ~ Erica Durance

Why is it so hard to be human being? I wonder. Why do we have to surrender? And to what? What if you refused to believe in a higher power? What if you thought you were the only trustworthy higher power? I have done that all my life and I know it doesn't work. You are not enough. Your will is not enough. But God? God is a pagan dream, conjured out of neediness. ~ Erica Jong