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Ursula K. Le Guin Quotes

1929–2018 United States

Ursula K. Le Guin (21 October 1929 – 22 January 2018) was an American writer, known mostly for her work in science fiction and fantasy.

United States
20th-century poets
Anarchists
Authors
Critics

Also known as: Le Guin, Ursala k le guin, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ursula K. le Guin, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, Ursula Le Guin

Random Ursula K. Le Guin quote

245 quotes

I was in too much haste, and now have no time left. I traded all the sunlight and the cities and the distant lands for a handful of power, for a shadow, for the dark.

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

The news had stirred him strangely. He listened for bulletins on the radio, which he had seldom turned on after finding that its basic function was advertising things for sale.

The Dispossessed (1974)

In general I evade “virtual experiences,” which were always recorded in better weather than it is today and which take the novelty out of everything you’re about to see without giving any real information.

Changing Planes (2003)

O foolish writer. Now moves. Even in storytime, dreamtime, once-upon-a-time, now isn’t then.

Tales from Earthsea (2001)

Before the gods and after, always, are the streams. Caves, stones, hills. Trees. The earth. The darkness of the earth.

Tales from Earthsea (2001)

You’ll know what to say when the time comes. That’s the art, eh? What to say, and when to say it. And the rest is silence.

Tales from Earthsea (2001)

He had almost yielded, but not quite. He had not consented. It is very hard for evil to take hold of the unconsenting soul.

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

Grow up. Grow up. Time to grow up. You’re here now. We’re working on physics here, not religion. Drop the mysticism and grow up.

The Dispossessed (1974)

He had waked her; he had given her what she lacked, and what few men could have given her: the sense of peril, which is the root of love.

Orsinian Tales (1976)

They can keep their God, they can keep their Light. I want the world back. I want questions, not the answer. I want my own life back, and my own death!

The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)

What is more arrogant than honesty?

The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)

It is light that defeats the dark.

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

“The first lesson on Roke, and the last is, Do what is needful! And no more.”
“The lessons in between, then, must consist in learning what is needful.”
“They do.”

The Farthest Shore (1972)

No doors were locked, few shut. There were no disguises and no advertisements. It was all there, all the work, all the life of the city, open to the eye and to the hand.

The Dispossessed (1974)

The old knowledge had been difficult but not distressing. It had been all paradox and myth, and it had made sense. The new knowledge was all fact and reason, and it made no sense.

Four Ways to Forgiveness (1995)

Maybe that’s what the Masters are afraid of. Maybe celibacy isn’t as necessary as the Rule of Roke teaches. Maybe it’s not a way of keeping the power pure, but of keeping the power to themselves.

Tales from Earthsea (2001)

All of us have to learn how to invent our lives, make them up, imagine them. We need to be taught these skills; we need guides to show us how. If we don't, our lives get made up for us by other people.

She saw time naïvely as a road laid out. You walked ahead, and you got somewhere. If you were lucky, you got somewhere worth getting to.

The Dispossessed (1974)

“Heal the Wound, Cure the illness, but let the Dying spirit go”

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

To light a candle is to cast a shadow.

A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Ursula K. Le Guin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.