It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
I think the mystery of art lies in this, that artists’ relationship is essentially with their work — not with power, not with profit, not with themselves, not even with their audience.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of art is the artist's connection to their work rather than external factors.
Ursula K. Le Guin highlights a profound aspect of artistic creation, emphasizing that the true relationship of artists is with their work itself. This relationship transcends the distractions of power, profit, self-interest, and even the audience's opinions, suggesting that genuine art is born from an intrinsic connection to creativity and expression, independent of external influences.
Themes
ArtArtistCreativityRelationshipExpression
In practice
Example use cases
During an art exhibition opening, this quote can be shared to inspire fellow artists.
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
Similar quotes
The magic of the music seems to light the way.
John LennonRead
We are the music-makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams, Wandering by lone sea-breakers, And sitting by desolate streams. World-losers and world-forsakers, Upon whom the pale moon gleams; Yet we are the movers and shakers, Of the world forever, it seems.
Arthur O'ShaughnessyRead
Listen to the great guitarists of the Fifties. They didn't do that nasty sort of industrial distortion. They played musical compositions as solos - Scotty Moore, Cliff Gallup, Django Reinhardt. There wasn't a bad note in any of those solos. I listened to that and stayed with those rules.
Jeff BeckRead
Metaphor is not just the detection of patterns; it is the creation of patterns.
James GearyRead
I was born out of due time in the sense that by temperament and talent I should have been more suited for the life of a small Bach, living in anonymity and composing regularly for an established service and for God.
Igor StravinskyRead
I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
Vincent Van GoghRead