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
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