Erica Jong
Erica Jong
Erica Jongis an American novelist and poet, known particularly for her 1973 novel Fear of Flying. The book became famously controversial for its attitudes towards female sexuality and figured prominently in the development of second-wave feminism. According to Washington Post, it has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth26 March 1942
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
I started with poetry because it was direct, immediate, and short. It was the ecstasy of striking matches in the dark.
language can't be appropriated by one person, one poet. The words belong to all of us.
... poetry is fired by love ...
... what is great poetry, after all, but the continuation of the human voice after death?
I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.
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.
I guess the thing that I'm most proud of is that I kept on writing poetry. I understand that poetry is sort of the source of everything I do. It's the source of my creativity.
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.
As women, we can't look old. We can't be fat. We're supposed to look like the 14-year-old models in Vogue, who are younger and younger and skinnier and skinnier, and they are air-brushed and contoured and Photoshopped.
If you've been a pretty woman and always pursued by lovers, losing that and not having that - it feels like a great loss.
I don't necessarily read everything. I read what I need to read to inspire the book I'm trying to finish.
Most sex is not really intimate.
Most sex doesn't really bring people together. You have to reach a certain level of connection, I think, and that's pretty rare.
I think poetry is the best thing I do. It's certainly the purest. I seem to switch gears without too much trouble. Non-fiction is in many ways the easiest to write.