"Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are"
About this Quote
Fame, in Erica Jong's telling, isn't a spotlight; it's a mass misunderstanding with good lighting. The line lands because it flips the usual fantasy - recognition as validation - into something closer to misidentification on an industrial scale. "Millions" is doing heavy work: not just a lot of people, but a crowd so large it stops being individuals and becomes a weather system. You can't correct it. You can only live under it.
Jong's choice of "wrong idea" is also slyly intimate. She doesn't say people hate you or distort you maliciously; she suggests they simply assemble a version of you from scraps: interviews, roles, book jackets, gossip, the vibe of a name. The subtext is that celebrity isn't a relationship. It's projection. The public doesn't meet you; it meets its own needs wearing your face.
Coming from a novelist associated with frankness about sex, ambition, and female autonomy, the quote reads as a warning about the trap laid especially for women who become culturally legible. Fame promises freedom, then demands a character. You're either reduced to a symbol ("voice of a generation", "confessional", "controversial") or punished for deviating from the persona people paid for.
The intent isn't self-pity so much as a clinical description of how public narratives colonize private identity. Jong punctures the idea that being known is inherently empowering; being known widely often means being known inaccurately, and having that inaccuracy follow you like a second body.
Jong's choice of "wrong idea" is also slyly intimate. She doesn't say people hate you or distort you maliciously; she suggests they simply assemble a version of you from scraps: interviews, roles, book jackets, gossip, the vibe of a name. The subtext is that celebrity isn't a relationship. It's projection. The public doesn't meet you; it meets its own needs wearing your face.
Coming from a novelist associated with frankness about sex, ambition, and female autonomy, the quote reads as a warning about the trap laid especially for women who become culturally legible. Fame promises freedom, then demands a character. You're either reduced to a symbol ("voice of a generation", "confessional", "controversial") or punished for deviating from the persona people paid for.
The intent isn't self-pity so much as a clinical description of how public narratives colonize private identity. Jong punctures the idea that being known is inherently empowering; being known widely often means being known inaccurately, and having that inaccuracy follow you like a second body.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Jewish Journal: Erica Jong talks sex at 73 (Erica Jong, 2015)
Evidence:
As time went on, I began to make sense of it; somewhere I wrote, “Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are.”. This is a primary-source occurrence in a published interview (Danielle Berrin interviewing Erica Jong), dated October 15, 2015. However, Jong explicitly indicates the line was written earlier (“somewhere I wrote”), so this interview is NOT necessarily the first publication, it's the earliest directly verifiable primary-source publication I could confirm online without access to the underlying book/manuscript she’s referring to. Several quote-aggregation sites variously (and inconsistently) attribute the line to her books, including 'How to Save Your Own Life' (commonly dated 1977), but I did not find a viewable scan/snippet from an authoritative edition showing the sentence on a specific page. To prove first publication, you’d likely need to locate the quote in print (e.g., in 'How to Save Your Own Life' or another Jong work) via a searchable/scan source (Google Books/Internet Archive) or a physical copy and then check first edition publication details. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jong, Erica. (2026, February 8). Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fame-means-millions-of-people-have-the-wrong-idea-59829/
Chicago Style
Jong, Erica. "Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are." FixQuotes. February 8, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fame-means-millions-of-people-have-the-wrong-idea-59829/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Fame means millions of people have the wrong idea of who you are." FixQuotes, 8 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/fame-means-millions-of-people-have-the-wrong-idea-59829/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
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