I hate being wrong, but I love it when I'm set straight. Harlan Ellison More Quotes by Harlan Ellison More Quotes From Harlan Ellison I cannot pay attention to what people say about my work. For me, personally, I am just this shards-and-ashes human being, who really gets upset when someone says something bad about me. If it's true, I cop to it. If I have any good qualities, it's that. Harlan Ellison upset quality people Writing is a holy chore. Harlan Ellison chores holy writing The more you know, the more unflinchingly you deny casual beliefs and Accepted Wisdom when it flies in the face of reality, the more carefully you observe the world and its people around you, the better chance you have of writing something meaningful and well-crafted. Harlan Ellison writing meaningful reality Time is like a river flowing endlessly through the universe. And if you poled your flatboat in that river you might fight your way against the current and travel upstream into the past. Or go with the flow and rush into the future. This was in a less cynical time before toxic waste dumping and pollution filled the waterway of Chronus with the detritus of empty hours wasted minutes years of repetition and time that has been killed. Harlan Ellison fighting past years For the first time we have a weapon that nobody has used for thirty years. This gives me great hope for the human race. Harlan Ellison race war peace [On love:] I have no respect for anyone who says they've given up, or that they're not looking or that they're tired. That is to abrogate one's responsibility as a human being. Harlan Ellison tired responsibility love The reward of a successful collaboration is a thing that cannot be produced by either of the parties working alone. It is akin to the benefits of sex with a partner, as opposed to masturbation. The latter is fun, but you show me anyone who has gotten a baby from playing with him or herself, and I'll show you an ugly baby, with just a whole bunch of knuckles. Harlan Ellison fun baby sex The real name for 'science' is magic. Harlan Ellison real names science The act of writing means you wish to communicate. Whether you're writing a memoir for yourself you put in a drawer, or you write a poem and you send it to a little magazine, or you write for publication, it always means - the form follows function. Harlan Ellison wish writing mean They change scapegoats at the networks more regularly than some people change socks. Harlan Ellison sock media people It is not merely enough to love literature if one wishes to spend one's life as a writer. It is a dangerous undertaking on the most primitive level. For, it seems to me, the act of writing with serious intent involves enormous personal risk. It entails the ongoing courage for self-discovery. It means one will walk forever on the tightrope, with each new step presenting the possiblity of learning a truth about oneself that is too terrible to bear. Harlan Ellison writing discovery mean I am not one of these people who instantly takes umbrage when he's corrected or - I love being corrected. Harlan Ellison love-is people Get a day job, make your money from that, and write to please yourself. Harlan Ellison please writing jobs I'm nothing. Nothing at all without writing. Without truth, my truth, the only truth I know, it's all a gambol in the pasture without rhythm or sense. Harlan Ellison rhythm writing past And we passed through the cavern of rats. And we passed through the path of boiling steam. And we passed through the country of the blind. And we passed through the slough of despond. And we passed through the vale of tears. And we came, finally, to the ice caverns. Harlan Ellison ice tears country Thus, from admiration of one wise and innocent child, and from a misheard remark, the process that not even Aristotle could codify was triggered. Where do you get your ideas? I purposely mishear things. Harlan Ellison wise writing children I was the green monkey, the pariah. And I had no friends. Not just a few friends, or one good friend, or grudging acceptance by other misfits and outcasts. I was alone. All stinking alone, without even an imaginary playmate. Harlan Ellison no-friends good-friend acceptance There is Harlan Ellison the human being, who takes a crap a couple of times a day, and who farts, and who eats chicken croquettes, if I can find them. And then there is the writer, this writer-person, who is a much finer person than I. Much more orderly, much more meaningful. Worthier, than I [am]. Harlan Ellison fart couple meaningful I never send a story off until I have read it aloud to at least two or three people. Because when I read - and I don't need their criticism, what I need is my own - when I read it aloud, there is a flow, there is a poetry to it. Harlan Ellison criticism two people Posing the question: does the god of love use underarm deodorant, vaginal spray and fluoride toothpaste? Harlan Ellison fluoride use doe
