Quote

I usually say I write for the smartest, cleverest, wittiest audience I know, and that's me.

Harlan Ellison

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Harlan Ellison
Age: 84 †
Born: 1934
Born: May 27
Died: 2018
Died: June 27
Film Critic
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
Cleveland
Ohio
Harlan Jay Ellison
Cleverest
Wittiest
Smartest
Usually
Audience
Write
Writing

More quotes by Harlan Ellison

Image
Get a day job, make your money from that, and write to please yourself.
Harlan Ellison
Image
When belief in a god dies, the god dies.
Harlan Ellison
Image
The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.
Harlan Ellison
Image
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
Image
I will live to piss in the open mouths or the open graves of my enemies, whichever comes first.
Harlan Ellison
Image
Writing is a holy chore.
Harlan Ellison
Image
Everyone is entitled to an *informed* opinion.
Harlan Ellison
Image
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.
Harlan Ellison
Image
Love ain't nothing but sex misspelled.
Harlan Ellison
Image
The trap into which all writers have, will, or should fall into, of writing The Great American Watchamacallit, is such an uncluttered and inviting one that from time to time I'm sure even the greatest have to pull themselves up short by the Shift key to remind themselves that it is story first that they should write.
Harlan Ellison
Image
Now begin in the middle, and later learn the beginning the end will take care of itself.
Harlan Ellison
Image
That's probably one of my biggest gripes with the Internet - that it settles for mediocrity and disinformation, which puts all information on the same level. Everything has the same value, whether it's Albert Einstein speaking, or yoohoo27@msn.com.
Harlan Ellison
Image
A man may truly live in his dreams, his noblest dreams, but only, only if he is worthy of those dreams.
Harlan Ellison
Image
There in the midst of the Amazon Jungle, Simon Haskell has cobbled up for himself a replica of an Art Deco salon.
Harlan Ellison
Image
The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.
Harlan Ellison
Image
[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
Image
Thank your readers and the critics who praise you, and then ignore them. Write for the most intelligent, wittiest, wisest audience in the universe: Write to please yourself.
Harlan Ellison
Image
Repent, Harlequin, said the Ticktock Man. Get stuffed, the Harlequin replied.
Harlan Ellison
Image
The real name for 'science' is magic.
Harlan Ellison
Image
When you're 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 it's the bold coverup of the absolutely terrified.
Harlan Ellison