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Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes - Page 3

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I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.

I had forgotten how much light there is in the world, till you gave it back to me.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Light, World, Forgotten
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “A Wizard of Earthsea”, p.178, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Men call women faithless, changeable, and though they say it in jealousy of their own ever-threatened sexual honor, there is some truth in it. We can change our life, our being; no matter what our will is, we are changed. As the moon changes yet is one, so we are virgin, wife, mother, grandmother. For all their restlessness, men are who they are; once they put on the man's toga they will not change again; so they make a virtue of that rigidity and resist whatever might soften it and set them free.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Mother, Men, Moon
"Lavinia". Book by Ursula K. Le Guin, 2008.

This is. And thou art. There is no safety. There is no end. The word must be heard in silence. There must be darkness to see the stars. The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Art, Stars, Safety
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Farthest Shore”, p.110, Simon and Schuster

You sit down and you do it, and you do it, and you do it, until you have learned to do it.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Writing, Down And

We read books to find out who we are.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Book, Discovery, Self Understanding
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.31, Ultramarine Publishing

Lying is the misuse of language. We know that. We need to remember that it works the other way round too. Even with the best intentions, language misused, language used stupidly, carelessly, brutally, language used wrongly, breeds lies, half-truths, confusion. In that sense you can say that grammar is morality. And it is in that sense that I say a writer's first duty is to use language well.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Lying, Confusion, Needs
Ursula K. Le Guin (1998). “Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew”, The Eighth Mountain Press

Grieving, like being blind, is a strange business; you have to learn how to do it. We seek company in mourning, but after the early bursts of tears, after the praises have been spoken, and the good days remembered, and the lament cried, and the grave closed, there is no company in grief. It is a burden borne alone.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Grief, Good Day, Grieving

Time has two aspects. There is the arrow, the running river, without which there is no change, no progress, or direction, or creation. And there is the circle or the cycle, without which there is chaos, meaningless succession of instants, a world without clocks or seasons or promises.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Running, Time, Circles
Ursula K. LeGuin (2015). “The Dispossessed”, p.99, Hachette UK

And though I came to forget or regret all I have ever done, yet would I remember that once I saw the dragons aloft on the wind at sunset above the western isles; and I would be content.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Regret, Sunset, Dragons
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Farthest Shore”, p.37, Simon and Schuster

Belief is the wound that knowledge heals.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Belief, Thrive, Heal
"The Telling". Book by Ursula K. Le Guin, 2000.

Only in silence the word, only in dark the light, only in dying life: bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Dark, Light, Sky
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “A Wizard of Earthsea”, p.214, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Owning is owing, having is hoarding.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Hoarding, Owing
Ursula K. Le Guin, Todd Barton, Margaret Chodos-Irvine, George Hersh (1985). “Always Coming Home”, p.313, Univ of California Press

Hope is a slow business.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Hope

To think that realistic fiction is by definition superior to imaginative fiction is to think imitation is superior to invention.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Thinking, Fiction, Definitions
Ursula K. Le Guin (2004). “The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination”, p.210, Shambhala Publications

Absolute freedom is absolute responsibility.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Freedom, Responsibility, Absolute Freedom
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.200, Ultramarine Publishing

As great scientists have said and as all children know, it is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception, and compassion, and hope.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Children, Compassion, Grieving
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.58, Ultramarine Publishing

A dangerous book will always be in danger from those it threatens with the demand that they question their assumptions. They'd rather hang on to the assumptions and ban the book.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Book, Demand, Assumption
Ursula K. Le Guin (2004). “The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination”, p.197, Shambhala Publications

Before the moon I am, what a woman is, a woman of power, a woman's power, deeper than the roots of trees, deeper than the roots of islands, older than the Making, older than the moon.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Women, Moon, Islands
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “Tehanu”, p.61, Simon and Schuster

What is an anarchist? One who, choosing, accepts the responsibility of choice.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Responsibility, Choices, Anarchist
URSULA K. LE GUIN (1975). “The Wind's Twelve Quarters”

If a book told you something when you were fifteen, it will tell you it again when you're fifty, though you may understand it so differently that it seems you're reading a whole new book.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Book, Reading, Fifteen
Ursula K. Le Guin (2016). “Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, with a Journal of a WriterÕs Week”, p.77, Small Beer Press

A wrong that cannot be repaired must be transcended.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “Tehanu”, p.128, Simon and Schuster

We will not know our own injustice if we cannot imagine justice. We will not be free if we do not imagine freedom. We cannot demand that anyone try to attain justice and freedom who has not had a chance to imagine them as attainable.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Justice, Trying, Demand
Ursula K. Le Guin (2004). “The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination”, p.175, Shambhala Publications

Reading is performance. The reader--the child under the blanket with a flashlight, the woman at the kitchen table, the man at the library desk--performs the work. The performance is silent. The readers hear the sounds of the words and the beat of the sentences only in their inner ear. Silent drummers on noiseless drums. An amazing performance in an amazing theater.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Children, Reading, Men
Ursula K. Le Guin (2004). “The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination”, p.143, Shambhala Publications

Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain't no free rides, baby.

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

Children know perfectly well that unicorns aren’t real, but they also know that books about unicorns, if they are good books, are true books.

Ursula K. Le Guin
Children, Real, Book
Ursula K. Le Guin, Susan Wood (1980). “The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction”, p.44, Ultramarine Publishing

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