Home / Quotes / Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin

Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin

“Prose writers are interested mostly in life and commas.”

Quote by Ursula K. Le Guin

Book:Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew

Work

Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew

This book serves as a resource for writers seeking to enhance their storytelling skills, providing practical exercises and insightful discussions that cater to both solitary authors and those working within a group dynamic. more

Author

Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin, born on October 21, 1929, is an esteemed American author of science fiction and fantasy. Known for her profound philosophical insights, rich imagination, and unique narrative style, Le Guin's works have won numerous literary awards and have had a significant impact on science fiction and fantasy literature. Her most famous works include the 'Earthsea' series and 'The Left Hand of Darkness', which have won her awards such as the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and she has also received the National Book Award for lifetime achievement for her contributions to literature. more

You May Also Like

“as a writer you are free. You are about the freest person that ever was. Your freedom is what you have bought with your solitude, your loneliness. You are in the country where you make up the rules, the laws. You are both dictator and obedient populace. It is a country nobody has ever explored before. It is up to you to make the maps, to build the cities. Nobody else in the world can do it, or ever could do it, or ever will be able to do it again.”

World Persons Country Able Law Can Do Cities Loneliness Solitude Maps Dictator Up To You Obedient Your Freedom

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“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.”

Source: Steering the craft: exercises and discussions on story writing for the lone navigator or the mutinous crew

“No matter how successful, beloved, influential her work was, when a woman author dies, nine times out of ten, she gets dropped from the lists, the courses, the anthologies, while the men get kept. ... If she had the nerve to have children, her chances of getting dropped are higher still. ... So if you want your writing to be taken seriously, don't marry and have kids, and above all, don't die. But if you have to die, commit suicide. They approve of that.”

Ifs Men Want Writing Children Stills Matter Kids Dies Courses Chance Successful Taken He Man Higher Ten Suicide Lists Nine Commit Beloved Nerves Influential Anthology

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“What is a body that casts no shadow? Nothing, a formlessness, two-dimensional, a comic-strip character. If I deny my own profound relationship with evil I deny my own reality. I cannot do, or make; I can only undo, unmake.”

Ifs I Can Two Character Body Reality Evil My Own Shadow Profound Casts Deny Comic Comic Strips

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“The backside of heroism is often rather sad; women and servants know that. They know also that the heroism may be no less real for that. But achievement is smaller than men think. What is large is the sky, the earth, the sea, the soul.”

Thinking Knows Men May Real Soul Earth Sea Sky Achievement Servant Heroism Backsides

Book:The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin

Source: The Unreal and the Real: The Selected Short Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin

“A moral choice in its basic terms appears to be a choice that favors survival: a choice made in favor of life.”

Made Choices Term Moral Survival Favors Choices Made Moral Choices

Book:Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

Source: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

“Crankish attacks on the freedom to read are common at present. When backed and coordinated by organized groups, they become sinister.”

Common Groups Organized Sinister Freedom To Read

Book:Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

Source: Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places

“There are dance artists, painting artists and writing artists. Authors are writing artists. You can practice art in whatever medium you choose, and words are mine.”

Writing Art Artist Practice Mines Painting Mediums You Choose

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“I have no control over my writing. I have lots of good intentions, but no control. There's a story that wants to be told.”

Want Writing Stories Intention Good Intentions

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin

“After a long time spent learning how to write as a woman instead of as an honorary man, I was able to come back to Earthsea and write the next three books in another and newer tradition: that of questioning, rather than accepting, the gendering of power as male.”

Men Writing Long Book Able Three Next Accepting Long Time Tradition Males Questioning Time Spent Honorary Learning How To Write

Author:Ursula K. Le Guin