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Harlan Ellison Quotes

Harlan Ellison quotes about writing

American Writer May 27, 1934

Harlan Ellison quotes in russian
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Quotes

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. Harlan Ellison
The only thing worth writing about is people. People. Human beings. Men and women whose individuality must be created, line by line, insight by insight. If you do not do it, the story is a failure. [...] There is no nobler chore in the universe 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... Harlan Ellison
Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you? as if you haven't been told a million times already? that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching. Harlan Ellison
The only thing worth writing about is people. People. Human beings. Men and women whose individuality must be created, line by line, insight by insight. Harlan Ellison
Entertain, yes. That goes without saying. But a good writer does that automatically, it's built into the machine. Telling a thumpingly good, mesmerizing story is what one does without question. But beyond that, any writer worth his/her hire knows that all writing, one way or another, is subversive. It is guerrilla warfare against the status quo. Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison quote: "Writing a novel is like going a great distance to take a small..."
Writing a novel is like going a great distance to take a small shit. Harlan Ellison
Harlan Ellison quote: "Get a day job, make your money from that, and write to please..."
Get a day job, make your money from that, and write to please yourself. Harlan Ellison
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. Harlan Ellison

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