Erica Jong Quotes

You call yourself what you want to call yourself.

You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free.

Labels can be really helpful when we have the autonomy to label ourselves. But when other people label us without our permission, that's when it becomes dangerous.

He named me. He liked the sound of it. And I said, well, all right. I felt a little odd about it. I don't understand all that name changing business anyway... No, he felt that Lauren Bacall was better sounding than Betty Bacall. He had a vision of his own. He was a svengali. He wanted to mold me. He wanted to control me. And he did until Mr. Bogart got involved.

People can dress you the way they want, they can do your makeup the way they want, but they can never take away your voice.

I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.

One doesn't want one's identity coerced.

I don't want to be identified by any one role I do.

You know, our sense of individuality is just the number one target of civilization.

I don't like defining myself. I just am.

Human beings have an inalienable right to invent themselves; when that right is pre-empted it is called brain-washing.

Only I keep wishing I could think of a way...to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games.

We all name ourselves. We call ourselves artists. Nobody asks us. Nobody says you are or you aren't.

Whether it’s your taste in clothing, your needs in a relationship, or what you do for a living—don’t let anyone else be at the controls. Define yourself.

I'm more than just a piece in their Games.

To be free means to be lacking in constitutive identity...

I came to live in a country I love; some people label me a defector. I have loved men and women in my life; I've been labeled the bisexual defector. Want to know another secret? I'm even ambidextrous. I don't like labels. Just call me Martina.

Without private thoughts and actions, we can never truly be free.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

I love to be individual, to step beyond gender.

Despite everything, no one can dictate who you are to other people.

I wanted to use my possibility to be an individual, and I suppose I have, no?

If you deny people their own voice, you'll have no idea of who they were.

I didn't want people to decide what I was going to wear and what I was going to look like and how I should behave.