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.
Erica JongRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wisdom often comes through experience and mistakes, and writers must openly embrace that vulnerability.
Erica Jong suggests that the pursuit of wisdom is inherently tied to folly; to gain deep insights, one must often make mistakes. Writers, in particular, expose their failures publicly, contrasting with others who may hide their missteps, emphasizing the courageous openness required in the quest for understanding and creativity.
Themes
WisdomFoolExperienceWritingVulnerability
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech discussing the learning process, one might use this quote to illustrate the importance of embracing failure.
More from Erica Jong
All quotes βI 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 JongRead
My generation was not only maligned in book reviews and attacked in graduate school but we lived to see our adored and adorable daughters wonder why feminism had become a dirty word.
Erica JongRead
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
Erica JongRead
I believe that women should live for love, for motherhood and for intellect, and I believe we shouldn't have to choose. And I believe that's always been difficult for women, to express themselves intellectually, maternally, and passionately.
Erica JongRead
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 JongRead
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If you are an enemy to your own mind, other people have to become enemies too, sooner or later. Until you understand, until you can love the thoughts that appear in your mind, then you can love the rest of us. You work with the projector -the mind - not the projected world. I can't really love you until I question the mind that thinks it sees you outside itself . . .
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Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one.
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What really counts are good endings, not flawed beginnings.
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