Harlan Ellison Quotes

Without a function, we cease to be. So, I will write till I die.

I do not just write, I write what I am. If there is a secret, perhaps that is it.

If I walk away from music, I walk away from myself.

I love writing, it's the center of my life. If you don't love what you do, you'd better find something else to love. Otherwise, you don't have a reason for living.

Writing eases my suffering . . . writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

I need to write to be happy.

The most important thing about music that I've learned after all this time is that to me, it's a way of reaching the truth.

I decided to write books, just to prove to myself that I was still alive, if nothing else.

I think it's an okay thing to express yourself.

One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others' minds.

We all need ways to express ourselves, and poetry is one of mine.

When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

I think I had a shyness about me, I think I discovered acting as a way to break out of that and as a way of belonging, a sense of being special.

I was always the observer, trying to understand what was going on. I was always the new kid. Writing became my safe place.

I'm very unhappy when I'm not writing.

At school, I was always daydreaming and fiddling in inkwells, but I had to learn to grow up and become articulate. And doing that was what brought me into writing songs. It's like therapy for me, because it exposes what I'm really thinking.

You could take away the singing, and I am fine. But don't take away my gift of writing. It is the best way I can relate and express what I am feeling and what I am going through.

I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.

The desire for self-expression afflicts people when they feel there is something of themselves which is not getting through to the outside world.

If I didn't write, I'd be like a duvet cover; I have no other marketable skills.

I'm more honest in my lyrics than I am in anything else. It's where I feel the most safe to express myself.

I always say that music is a small drop in the ocean of life. I was told a long time ago that your horn, or whatever instrument you play, is a means to be in the world.

I don't journal that much, honestly.

When I get depressed, I try to get something for the terrible sadness that comes over me and create something in terms of poetry.

If I don't create, I don't exist.