200 Quotes by Harlan Ellison

These were the real substances of his nature, the true faces of his sins, the marks in the ledger of a life he had never had, yet had worshipped silently at an altar of evil.- Delusion for a Dragonslayer

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.

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

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

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.

Master Timekeeper: Not everyone thinks so. Most people enjoy order.Harlequin: I don't, and most of the people I know don't."Master Timekeeper: That's not true. How do you think we caught you?Harlequin: I'm not interested.Master Timekeeper: A girl named pretty Alice told us who you were.Harlequin: That's a lie.Master Timekeeper: It's true. You unnerve her. She wants to belong, she wants to conform, I'm going to turn you off.

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.

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

Uh, excuse me, sir, I, uh, don't known how to uh, to uh, tell you this, but you were three minutes late. The schedule is a little, uh, bit off."He grinned sheepishly."That's ridiculous!" murmured the Ticktockman behind his mask. "Check your watch." And then he went into his office, going mrmee, mrmee, mrmee, mrmee.