Erica Jong Quotes

I did not always know I would be a writer. Until I had a room of my own, I did not write much at all - no more than any other child who read a lot of books. I began to write fiction and poetry when I first had a room that was truly my own with a door that shut and some measure, however fragile, of privacy.

Children have their own mind.

For me, it is freedom, freedom from everything: when I write, I'm not a woman. I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a Moroccan. I can reinvent myself, and I can reinvent the world.

If you want your children to bring original ideas into the world, you need to let them pursue their passions, not yours.

The child seeks for independence by means of work; an independence of body and mind.

There is one thing you and I as parents cannot do, not do we want to do if we really think about it, and that's control our children's will--that spirit that lets them be themselves apart from you and me. They are not ours to possess, control, manipulate, or even to make mind.

All I know is when I start getting serious about songwriting... it's like a playground. All responsibilities slip away and you're with your essence. There can be delight there and self-discovery. You can dance there... I think of it as my serious playground.

We must clearly understand that when we give the child freedom and independence, we are giving freedom to a worker already braced for action, who cannot live without working and being active.

I think the best thing a parent can do, when raising a child, is simply get out of their way.

Children love to be alone because alone is where they know themselves, and where they dream.

Children are very strong and independent characters and can come up with more interesting things than Marlon Brando, and it's sometimes very difficult to direct or order them to do something.

Museums and bookstores should feel, I think, like vacant lots - places where the demands on us are our own demands, where the spirit can find exercise in unsupervised play.

Silence has many advantages…I write and draw in my notebook and I read anything I please.

Adults look upon a child as something empty that is to be filled through their own efforts, as something inert and helpless for which they must do everything, as something lacking an inner guide and in constant need of inner direction. . . . An adult who acts in this way, even though he may be convinced that he is filled with zeal, love, and a spirit of sacrifice on behalf of his child, unconsciously suppresses the development of the child's own personality.

Sendak's 1963 classic 'Where The Wild Things Are' has long been a favorite of mine because of the creative imagery, fantastic adventures and, most of all, because of how this timeless story shows us that children need to be free to roam, explore and invent in order to understand their place in the world that surrounds them.

I just always wanted to be left alone to go into a creative space.

Working on my own gave me a chance to take my time and experiment a lot.

Actors spend most of their time out of work, so I actually spend more time making furniture. The thing about furniture that's much better than acting is that it's just me. There's no director, no script - the concept is me, unless a client wants something.

Don't try to 'fix' the child's boredom - rather, let the child find his or her inner resources.

People speculate or think what they want to think, but it's been really fun for me to kind of explore what I want to explore.

My mom worked late, and I was at home a lot by myself. It was good for my imagination - and bad for it, too.

I have the space and liberty to create.

I've got no problem being on my own. I like the way my imagination works.

We personally don't try to follow industry trends or themes. We just try and make something that we think would be cool and we want to make.

The vividness of children is easier to see when they're completely left to their own devices.