It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
If you have to find devices to coax yourself to stay focused on writing, perhaps you should not be writing what you're writing. And if this lack of motivation is a constant problem, perhaps writing is not your forte. I mean, what is the problem? If writing bores you, that is pretty fatal. If that is not the case, but you find that it is hard going and it just doesn't flow, well, what did you expect? It is work; art is work.
Interpretation
What this quote means
If you struggle to stay motivated while writing, it might indicate that you are not meant to write what you're trying to create.
Ursula K. Le Guin emphasizes the importance of passion and natural inclination in the writing process. She suggests that if writing feels tedious or unengaging, it may be a sign that the writer is not aligned with their subject matter or that they are not genuinely interested in the craft, underscoring the notion that art requires dedication and effort.
Themes
WritingMotivationArtFocusPassion
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a writing workshop to inspire aspiring authors to reflect on their motivations.
More from Ursula K. Le Guin
All quotes →In reading a novel, any novel, we have to know perfectly well that the whole thing is nonsense, and then, while reading, believe every word of it. Finally, when we're done with it, we may find - if it's a good novel - that we're a bit different from what we were before we read it, that we have changed a little... But it's very hard to say just what we learned, how we were changed.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
Reason is a faculty far larger than mere objective force. When either the political or the scientific discourse announces itself as the voice of reason, it is playing God, and should be spanked and stood in the corner.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When he found that the administrators were upset, he laughed. “Do they expect students not to be anarchists?” he said. “What else can the young be? When you are on the bottom, you must organize from the bottom up
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
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