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Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes - Page 19

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Science fiction - and the correct shortcut is 'sf' - uses actual scientific facts or theories for the source ideas or framework of the story. It has some scientific content, however speculative. If it breaks a law of

Science fiction - and the correct shortcut is 'sf' - uses actual scientific facts or theories for the source ideas or framework of the story. It has some scientific content, however speculative. If it breaks a law of physics, it knows it's doing so and follows up the consequences. If it invents a society of aliens, it does so with some respect for and knowledge of the social sciences and what you might call social probabilities. And some of it is literarily self-aware enough to treat its metaphors as metaphors.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Self, Law, Ideas

Now perhaps an excessive dread of overpopulation--overcrowding--reflects not an outward reality, but an inward state of mind. If you feel overcrowded when you're not, what does that mean? Maybe that you're afraid of human contact--of being close to people, of being touched.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Mean, Reality, People
Ursula K. Le Guin (2008). “The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel”, p.59, Simon and Schuster

There are very real differences between science fiction and realistic fiction, between horror and fantasy, between romance and mystery. Differences in writing them, in reading them, in criticizing them. Vive les différences! They're what gives each genre its singular flavor and savor, its particular interest for the reader - and the writer.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Real, Reading, Writing
"Ursula K. Le Guin talks about genres, gender, and broadening fiction". Interview with Michael Cunningham, electricliterature.com. April 2, 2016.

You fear them because you fear death, and rightly: for death is terrible and must be feared,' the mage said...'And life is also a terrible thing,' Ged said, 'and must be feared and praised.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Ged, Life Is, Fear Of Death
Ursula K. Le Guin (1975). “The farthest shore”, Puffin

A man who saw a miracle would reject his eyes' witness, if those with him saw nothing.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Eye, Men, Miracle
Ursula K. Le Guin (2008). “The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel”, p.65, Simon and Schuster

Truth, as ever, avoids the stranger.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Stranger
Ursula K. Le Guin (1967). “Three Hainish Novels”

All times are changing times, but ours is one of massive, rapid moral and mental transformation. Archetypes turn into millstones, large simplicities get complicated, chaos becomes elegant, and what everybody knows is true turns out to be what some people used to think.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Thinking, Times Are Changing, People
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “Tales from Earthsea”, p.368, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Cities, Doe, Walks
URSULA K. LE GUIN (1975). “The Wind's Twelve Quarters”

The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power: and it issues the coins itself.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Issues, Coins, Individual
"The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia". Book by Ursula K. Le Guin, May 1974.

It is a real wilderness, and those who go there should not feel too safe.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Real, Safe, Wilderness
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.84, Ultramarine Publishing

The thing about working with time, instead of against it, he thought, is that it is not wasted. Even pain counts.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Pain
Ursula K. LeGuin (2015). “The Dispossessed”, p.144, Hachette UK

The machine conceals the machinations.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Machines
Ursula K. Le Guin (2000). “The Left Hand of Darkness”, p.108, Penguin

There's no way to use power for good.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Use, Way
Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “The Found and the Lost: The Collected Novellas of Ursula K. Le Guin”, p.475, Simon and Schuster

We have inhabited both the actual and the imaginary realms for a long time. But we don't live in either place the way our parents or ancestors did. Enchantment alters with age, and with the age. We know a dozen Arthurs now, all of them true. The Shire changed irrevocably even in Bilbo's lifetime. Don Quixote went riding out to Argentina and met Jorge Luis Borges there. Plus c'est la même chose, plus ça change.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Long, Parent, Age

There's seldom as much hurry as I used to think there was.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Thinking, Used
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Other Wind”, p.7, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Fantasy is probably the oldest literary device for talking about reality.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Reality, Talking, Fantasy

I can never get used to the fact, though I know it, that women are born cynics. Men have to learn cynicism. Infant girls could teach it to them.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Girl, Men, Facts
Ursula K. Le Guin (2008). “Lavinia”, p.54, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Little mirrors were attached to the front of their cars, at which they glanced to see where they had been; then they stared ahead again. I had thought that only beetles had this delusion of Progress.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Science, Mirrors, Car

Claude Levi-Strauss has been a great source of fruitful irritation to my mind.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Irritation, Mind, Levi Strauss
"Chronicles of Earthsea". The Guardian Online Interview, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2004.

There is no kingdom like the forests.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Kingdoms, Forests
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Farthest Shore”, p.200, Simon and Schuster

A man wants his virility regarded. A woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. [Here] one is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Appreciation, Men, Want
"The Left Hand of Darkness". Chapter 7 "The Question of Sex" (p. 95). Book by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1969.

In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Blood, Tales
Ursula K. Le Guin (1997). “Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places”, p.30, Grove Press

Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain't no free rides, baby. No hitchhiking. And if you want to strike out in any new direction — you go alone. With a machete in your hand and the fear of God in your heart.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Baby, Teacher, Heart
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.186, Ultramarine Publishing

It did not matter, after all. He was only one man. One man's fate is not important. "If it is not, what is?" He could not endure those remembered words.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Fate, Men, Important
Ursula K. Le Guin (1967). “Three Hainish Novels”

When people say, Did you always want to be a writer?, I have to say no! I always WAS a writer.

Ursula K. Le Guin
People, Want

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