“I write science fiction because that is what publishers call my books. Left to myself, I should call them novels.” — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
It is of the nature of idea to be communicated: written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
Well, the secret to writing is writing. It's only a secret to people who don't want to hear it. Writing is how… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
For a fiction writer, a storyteller, the world is full of stories, and when a story is there, it's there, and you… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it... By using words well they… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I don't teach writing classes anymore, and I'm really glad I don't, because I would feel very strange about telling people, 'Go… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
We need writers who know the difference between the production of a commodity and the practice of an art. — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“I was willing to believe him that most modern writing was trash, on the evidence that so much old writing was trash;… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
After a long time spent learning how to write as a woman instead of as an honorary man, I was able to… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I came into science fiction at a very good time, when the doors were getting thrown open to all kinds of more… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
It's probably simply a matter of temperament that I never stopped to wonder if I could "match" what I had done, never… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I think there is no way to write about being alone. To write is to tell something to somebody to communicate to… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
Writers have to get used to launching something beautiful and watching it crash and burn. They also have to learn when to… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I don't believe that a writer 'gets' (takes into the head) an 'idea' (some sort of mental object) 'from' somewhere, and then… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“Collaborative workshops and writers' peer groups hadn't been invented when I was young. They're a wonderful invention. They put the writer into… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
Writers need to learn their trade, and how to negotiate the increasingly difficult marketplace. The trade can be taught and learned just… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“All they're trying to do is tell you what they're like, and what you're like—what's going on—what the weather is now, today,… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
There was one person who greatly and directly benefited my career--my agent Virginia Kidd. From 1968 to the late nineties she represented… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“The one thing a writer has to have is a pencil and some paper. That's enough, so long as she knows that… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“Literature is the extant body of written art. All novels belong to it. The value judgement concealed in distinguishing one novel as… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“The Tao Te Ching is partly in prose, partly in verse; but as we define poetry now, not by rhyme and meter… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
In many college English courses the words “myth” and “symbol” are given a tremendous charge of significance. You just ain’t no good… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
No matter how successful, beloved, influential her work was, when a woman author dies, nine times out of ten, she gets dropped… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“The social function of narrative is not limited to 'primitive' people sitting around the fire telling each other where Fire came from… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
If you're a fiction writer, though, I can tell you how to let people talk through you. Listen. Just be quiet, and… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
A story rises from the springs of creation, from the pure will to be; it tells itself; I takes its own course,… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
If you want your writing to be taken seriously, don't marry and have kids, and above all, don't die. But if you… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
What's needed in this case is conscious and serious practice in hearing, and using, and being used by, other people's voices. — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
All makers must leave room for the acts of the spirit. But they have to work hard and carefully, and wait patiently,… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“Crafty writers...don't allow Exposition to form Lumps. They break up the information, grind it fine, and make it into bricks to build… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
There are very real differences between science fiction and realistic fiction, between horror and fantasy, between romance and mystery. Differences in writing… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I have never heard a dancer asking for advice about how to stay focused on her footwork, or a painter complaining about… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I have become very critical of the whole book award system and could preach on that subject for quite a while, but… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“I go on writing in both respectable and despised genres because I respect them all, rejoice in their differences, and reject only… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
I think hard times are coming when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
In the tale, in the telling, we are all one blood. Take the tale in your teeth, then, and bite till the… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“If you cannot or will not imagine the results of your actions, there’s no way you can act morally or responsibly. Little… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
Writers are egotists. All artists are. They can’t be altruists and get their work done. And writers love to whine about the… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“Why is it that if you say you don’t enjoy using an e-reader, or that you aren’t going to get one till… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“...I wore his blood for clothing, on my legs and thighs and hands: a dry, stiff, brown garment with no warmth in it.” — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
Translation is entirely mysterious. Increasingly I have felt that the art of writing is itself translating, or more like translating than it is like… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“Aeneas' mother is a star?" "No; a goddess." I said cautiously, "Venus is the power that we invoke in spring, in the garden, when… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“Meaning - this is perhaps the common note, the bane I am seeking. What is the Meaning of this book, this event in the… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
For fantasy is true, of course. It isn't factual, but it is true. Children know that. Adults know it too, and that is precisely… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“. . . chronosophy does involve ethics. Because our sense of time involves our ability to separate cause and effect, means and end. The… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“If both you and your plane are on time, the airport is merely a diffuse, short, miserable prelude to the intense, long, miserable plane… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
Between thought and spoken word is a gap where intention can enter, the symbol be twisted aside, and the lie come to be. — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
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. — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“I did a lot today. That is, I did something. The only thing I have ever done. I pressed a button. It took the… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
To me the female principle is, or at least historically has been, basically anarchic. It values order without constraint, rule by custom not by… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“Hector had no virtue?” “Of course he did. He won all his battles, till the last one.” “We all do,” Aeneas remarked.” — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“I was willing to believe him that most modern writing was trash, on the evidence that so much old writing was trash; but I… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share
“Can women operate as women in a male institution without becoming imitation men?” — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share