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
Pregnancy seemed like a tremendous abdication of control. Something growing inside you which would eventually usurp your life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Pregnancy involves surrendering control over one's life as a new life develops within.
In this quote, Erica Jong captures the profound sense of loss of autonomy that can accompany pregnancy. As a new life begins to grow inside a woman, it symbolizes not just the creation of a child but also the inevitable changes and challenges that this new reality brings, fundamentally altering the woman's lifestyle and priorities.
Themes
PregnancyControlLife ChangesAutonomyMotherhood
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the challenges of motherhood, one might reference this quote to illustrate the transformative experience of pregnancy.
More from Erica Jong
All quotes →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 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.
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
Similar quotes
Mom sobbed something into Dad's chest that I wish I hadn't heard, and that I hope she never finds out that I did hear. She said, "I won't be a mom anymore." It gutted me pretty badly.
John GreenRead
The family uses people, not for what they are, nor for what they are intended to be, but for what it wants them for- its own uses. It thinks of them not as what God has made them, but as the something which it has arranged that they shall be.
Florence NightingaleRead
Children are a battle of a different sort. ... A battle without banners or warhorns but no less fierce.
George R. R. MartinRead
The fundamental defect of fathers, in our competitive society, is that they want their children to be a credit to them.
Bertrand RussellRead
Growing up, I was taught that a man has to defend his family. When the wolf is trying to get in, you gotta stand in the doorway.
B. B. KingRead
When you’ve had children, your body changes; there’s history to it. I like the evolution of that history; I’m fortunate to be with somebody who likes the evolution of that history. I think it’s important to not eradicate it. I look at someone’s face and I see the work before I see the person... You’re certainly not staving off the inevitable. And if you’re doing it out of fear, that fear’s still going to be seen through your eyes. The windows to your soul, they say.
Cate BlanchettRead