Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison
Harlan Jay Ellisonis an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth27 May 1934
CityCleveland, OH
CountryUnited States of America
meaningful writing reality
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.
writing reality glasses
There is no nobler chore in the craft of writing than holding up the mirror of reality and turning it slightly, so we have a new and different perception of the commonplace, the everyday, the 'normal,' the obvious. People are reflected in the glass. The fantasy situation into which you thrust them is the mirror itself. And what we are shown should illuminate and alter our perception of the world around us. Failing that, you have failed totally.
brief came cared carries conquerors crying deeds endlessly memories names time wind
Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.
love education hate
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
civilization history moral nice record
K is for Kenghis Khan. He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere.
people upset quality
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.
love-is people
I am not one of these people who instantly takes umbrage when he's corrected or - I love being corrected.
mean writing wish
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.
knowing responsible wanted
I am responsible for myself. I am exactly who I eventually wanted myself to be, I guess, without consciously knowing what I wanted me to be.
mistake way egomaniacs
I made as many mistakes as anybody else. I sound as if I'm an egomaniac, and I suppose in some ways I'm filled with hubris because I know how good I am at certain things. But other things, I can't do at all. I can't draw.
meaningful couple fart
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].
writing doctors flying
Everybody has a talent, whether it's scrapbooking, or kite-flying, or brain surgery, or writing, everybody has a talent. And if they discover it, and they turn it to their purposes and make a living out of it, then they become not "that person," but they become "that writer" or "that doctor" or "that supervisor."
thinking recognition
Any writer who pretends to a disaffection for recognition, I think they're being duplicitous.
passion skills crafts
When you're a writer, you have to have the passion and the skill and the craft. It's not just enough to have the passion. You've gotta have all three.