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Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

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Famous Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

“The book itself is a curious artifact, not showy in its technology but complex and extremely efficient: a really neat little device, compact, often very pleasant to look at and handle, that can last decades, even centuries. It doesn't have to be plugged in, activated, or performed by a machine; all it needs is light, a human eye, and a human mind. It is not one of a kind, and it is not ephemeral. It lasts. It is reliable.”

NeedsMindHumansLooksKindLittlesBookLightEyeLastsTechnologyCenturyMachinesComplexesDecadesHandleCuriousPleasantDevicesHuman MindEfficientNeatEphemeralCompactArtifactsOne Of A KindHuman EyesShowy
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become.”

PeopleThinkingInspirationalFeelsMayBookRealUnderstandingEssentialsDiscoveryGuidesSelf DiscoveryWho We AreFinding YourselfImaginaryKnow YourselfThyselfKnow ThyselfSelf UnderstandingDiscovering YourselfDiscovering The World
Book:The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
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“As you read a book word by word and page by page, you participate in its creation, just as a cellist playing a Bach suite participates, note by note, in the creation, the coming-to-be, the existence, of the music. And, as you read and re-read, the book of course participates in the creation of you, your thoughts and feelings, the size and temper of your soul.”

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Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“I have told the story I was asked to tell. I have closed it, as so many stories close, with a joining of two people. What is one man's and one woman's love and desire, against the history of two worlds, the great revolutions of our lifetimes, the hope, the unending cruelty of our species? A little thing. But a key is a little thing, next to the door it opens. If you lose the key, the door may never be unlocked. It is in our bodies that we lose or begin our freedom, in our bodies that we accept or end our slavery. So I wrote this book for my friend, with whom I have lived and will die free.”

PeopleIfsMenWorldMayLittlesTwoBookEndsStoriesBodyDesireDiesNextLosesAcceptingDoorsRevolutionKeysMy FriendsSlaveryLifetimeSpeciesCrueltyOne ManLittle ThingsJoiningOne WomanUnendingTwo Worlds
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“If a book were written all in numbers, it would be true. It would be just. Nothing said in words ever came out quite even. Things in words got twisted and ran together, instead of staying straight and fitting together. But underneath the words, at the center, like the center of the Square, it all came out even. Everything could change, yet nothing would be lost. If you saw the numbers you could see that, the balance, the pattern. You saw the foundations of the world. And they were solid.”

IfsWorldSaidBookWould BeTogetherLostNumbersSawsWrittenBalanceFoundationPatternsBeing TrueRanStayingSquaresTwistedFittingFitting Together
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“Well, we think that time "passes," flows past us, but what if it is we who move forward, from past to future, always discovering the new? It would be a little like reading a book, you see. The book is all there, all at once, between its covers. But if you want to read the story and understand it, you must begin with the first page, and go forward, always in order. So the universe would be a very great book, and we would be very small readers.”

IfsThinkingWantFirstsWellsLittlesBookStoriesWould BePastMovingTimeOrderUniverseReadingReaderPagesFlowMoving ForwardWhat IfDiscoveringGreat BookTime Passes
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“Meeting writers is always so disappointing. I got over wanting to meet live writers quite a long time ago. There is this terrific book that has changed your life, and then you meet the author, and he has shifty eyes and funny shoes and he won't talk about anything except the injustice of the United States income tax structure toward people with fluctuating income, or how to breed Black Angus cows, or something.”

PeopleWritingLongBookStatesEyeBlackUnitedUnited StatesChangedTaxesLong TimeStructureMeetingsInjusticeShoesIncomeCowsTerrificLong Time AgoDisappointingIncome Tax
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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