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Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

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Famous Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

“Art is craft: all art is always and essentially a work of craft: but in the true work of art, before the craft and after it, is some essential durable core of being, which is what the craft works on, and shows, and sets free. The statue in the stone. How does the artist find that, see it, before it's visible? That is a real question.”

DoeArtRealShowsArtistEssentialsArt IsStonesCoreCraftsVisibleWorks Of ArtStatuesReal Questions
Book:The Wave in the Mind: Talks and Essays on the Writer, the Reader, and the Imagination
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“Things don't have purposes, as if the universe were a machine, where every part has a useful function. What's the function of a galaxy? I don't know if our life has a purpose and I don't see that it matters. What does matter is that we're a part. Like a thread in a cloth or a grass-blade in a field. It is and we are. What we do is like wind blowing on the grass.”

IfsKnowsDoeMatterPurposeUniverseOur LivesFieldsWindMachinesFunctionGrassThreadGalaxyBladesWind Blowing
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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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 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.”

IfsKnowsDoeIdeasSelfEnoughFactsStoriesUseMightLawSocialFictionBreakTheorySourceConsequenceTreatsScience FictionMetaphorPhysicsAliensProbabilityFrameworkShortcutsSocial ScienceLaws Of PhysicsScientific FactsFollow Up
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one musn't make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love [my country], but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.”

DoeSelfCountryHateLinesVirtueSelf LoveGood ThingsProfessionBoundariesIgnorantLove LifeWhat Is LoveI Love Life
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“In many college English courses the words “myth” and “symbol” are given a tremendous charge of significance. You just ain’t no good unless you can see a symbol hiding, like a scared gerbil, under every page. And in many creative writing course the little beasts multiply, the place swarms with them. What does this Mean? What does that Symbolize? What is the Underlying Mythos? Kids come lurching out of such courses with a brain full of gerbils. And they sit down and write a lot of empty pomposity, under the impression that that’s how Melville did it.”

WritingMeanLittlesDoeKidsCoursesGivenBrainCreativeCollegePagesEmptyDown AndScaredMythImpressionSymbolsBeastSignificanceHidingCreative WritingSwarmsMelvillePomposity
Author:Ursula K. Le Guin
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“You will die. You will not live forever. Nor will any man nor any thing. Nothing is immortal. But only to us is it given to know that we must die. And that is a great gift: the gift of selfhood. For we have only what we know we must lose, what we are willing to lose... That selfhood which is our torment, and our treasure, and our humanity, does not endure. It changes; it is gone, a wave on the sea. Would you have the sea grow still and the tides cease, to save one wave, to save yourself?”

KnowsMenDoeStillsHumanityDiesGivenGrowsLosesGoneForeverSeaWillingBalanceEndureWaveTreasureCeaseImmortalTidesTormentLive ForeverGreat GiftsSave Yourself
Book:The Farthest Shore: Book Three
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