Harlan Ellison Quotes

You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.

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

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.

I don't mind you thinking I'm stupid, but don't talk to me like I'm stupid.

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

In these days of widespread illiteracy, functional illiteracy... anything that keeps people stupid is a felony.

The world is turning into a cesspool of imbeciles.

You must never be afraid to go there.

They minute people fall in love they become liars.

Posing the question: does the god of love use underarm deodorant, vaginal spray and fluoride toothpaste?

I hate being wrong, but I love it when I'm set straight.

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

The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.

I will live to piss in the open mouths or the open graves of my enemies, whichever comes first.

My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration, and ignoble deaths.

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

Get a day job, make your money from that, and write to please yourself.

People don't die from the old diseases any more. They die from new ones, but that's Progress, isn't it? Isn't it?

Don't start an argument with somebody who has a microphone when you don't. They'll make you look like chopped liver.

You're a writer. And that's something better than being a millionaire. Because it's something holy.

I refuse to write the same story twice. I keep experimenting. I keep learning how to work. I've been at it pretty much 50 years, and I'm now beginning to learn how to do the job well.

The ability to dream is all I have to give. That is my responsibility; that is my burden. And even I grow tired.

I am not one of these people who instantly takes umbrage when he's corrected or - I love being corrected.

I have no mouth. And I must scream.

The real name for 'science' is magic.

I see all. I hear all. I know all. And I spend a great deal of time in the bathroom.

A man may truly live in his dreams, his noblest dreams, but only, only if he is worthy of those dreams.

If you let the image of the messenger get in the way of whatever message there may be, however large or small, that's your problem, not his.

They change scapegoats at the networks more regularly than some people change socks.

[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.

In my ugly, elitist opinion we are not all entitled to voice our opinions, we are entitled to pass along our informed opinions.

For the first time we have a weapon that nobody has used for thirty years. This gives me great hope for the human race.

I can't picture in my mind three hundred and sixty thousand dollars... When I think of it, all I can see in my mind is a big nickel.

Because the chief commodity a writer has to sell is his courage. And if he has none, he is more than a coward. He is a sellout and a fink and a heretic, because writing is a holy chore.

Any writer who pretends to a disaffection for recognition, I think they're being duplicitous.

There in the midst of the Amazon Jungle, Simon Haskell has cobbled up for himself a replica of an Art Deco salon.

When belief in a god dies, the god dies.

Everyone is entitled to an *informed* opinion.

Writing is a holy chore.

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.

Anyone who can not write should.

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.

Repent, Harlequin," said the Ticktock Man. "Get stuffed," the Harlequin replied.

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.

What I try to write about are the darkest things in the soul, the mortal dreads... The closer I get to the burning core of my being, the things which are most painful to me, the better is my work.

be careful of monsters with teeth

To say more, is to say less.

People on the outside think there’s something magical about writing…

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

Who wants a library full of books you've already read?