Quotes by Harlan Ellison

“Love aint nothing but sex misspelled.”

“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.”

“I dont mind you thinking Im stupid, but dont talk to me like Im stupid”

“The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.”

“When belief in a god dies, the god dies”

“K is for Kenghis Khan; He was a very nice person. History has no record of him. There is a moral in that, somewhere.”

“[On love:] I have no respect for anyone who says theyve given up, or that theyre not looking or that theyre tired. That is to abrogate ones responsibility as a human being.”

“I have no mouth, and I must scream.”

“People who cant get laid watch _Star Trek_ and eat Twinkies!”

“I hate being wrong, but I love it when Im set straight.”

I know that pain is the most important thing in the universes. Greater than survival, greater than love, greater even than the beauty it brings about. For without pain, there can be no pleasure. Without sadness, there can be no happiness. Without misery there can be no beauty. And without these, life is endless, hopeless, doomed and damned. Adult. You have become adult.

The two most common elements in the universe are Hydrogen and stupidity.

It is not merely enough to love literature if one wishes to spend ones 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.

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.

When youre all alone out there, on the end of the typewriter, with each new story a new appraisal by the world of whether you can still get it up or not, arrogance and self-esteem and deep breathing are all you have. It often looks like egomania. I assure you its the bold coverup of the absolutely terrified.

Writing a novel is like going a great distance to take a small shit.

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.

Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning; the end will take care of itself.

Who wants a library full of books youve already read?

A writer who writes more than he reads is an amateur.