# Quote — Erica Jong, How to Save Your Own Life

> I only know that in our choice of friends and lovers and teachers who will change our lives, we are guided by forces which have nothing to do with the rationalizations we give.

- Author: [Erica Jong](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong.md)
- Book: [How to Save Your Own Life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Erica_Jong#How_to_Save_Your_Own_Life_(1977)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [relationships](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/relationships.md), [choices](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/choices.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/i-only-know

## More from this book

> Friends love misery... our misery is what endears us to our friends.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/friends-love-misery.md)

> It takes a spasm of love to write a poem.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/it-takes-a-spasm.md)

Topics: [writing](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/writing.md), [poetry](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry.md)

> Loving someone is a loss of freedom -- but one doesn't think of it as loss because one gains so much else.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/erica-jong/how-to-save-your-own-life/loving-someone-is-a-loss.md)

Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md)