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

Ambivalence is a wonderful tune to dance to. It has a rhythm all its own.
Erica Jong

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

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy gets the Catholic Church. America gets Hollywood.
Erica Jong

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

Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.
Erica Jong

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.
Erica Jong

Gossip is the opiate of the oppressed.
Erica Jong

He who can take advice is sometimes superior to him who can give it.
Erica Jong

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.
Erica Jong

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.
Erica Jong

If you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica Jong

In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving - instead of actually getting up and leaving.
Erica Jong

It is the city of mirrors, the city of mirages, at once solid and liquid, at once air and stone.
Erica Jong

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had.
Erica Jong

Men and women, women and men. It will never work.
Erica Jong

Men have always detested women's gossip because they suspect the truth: their measurements are being taken and compared.
Erica Jong

No one ever found wisdom without also being a fool. Writers, alas, have to be fools in public, while the rest of the human race can cover its tracks.
Erica Jong

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

Show me a woman who doesn't feel guilty and I'll show you a man.
Erica Jong